Question

What were the moral dilemmas faced by the doctors in New Orleans? What were their options? What did they decide to do?

Answer 1

In the late summer of 2005, the waters loosed in the wake of hurricane Katrina laid siege to New Orleans.

At the medical center, the power and backup generators failed due to the high amount of water and gusts. Doctors and nurses at the time in darkness struggled to take care of patients without necessary machines, and functioning hospitals.

The leaders and doctors faced moral dilemmas in the hospitals. Doctors were not able to decide priorities because of medical and ethical issues. As the days passed, doctors worked on without electricity, running water, sleep and outside help, they flipped their moral scale upside down. Now the sickest patients whom they designated three on a one to three scales would wait, and the healthiest would go first. This reflected a sense among the doctors that they would not be able to save everyone. In normal condition, we can see the duty of doctors to care sickest patients first but here we can see different aspects of medical care.

Doctors had not many options because of many circumstances so they decided to take other ethical measures. Because they could not leave healthiest patients.

Doctors could take some ethical steps rather than leave patients isolated, they could have wait until outside. Doctors and leaders took sophisticated measures to save patients which created ethical and moral dilemmas.

In my opinion, doctors must not have left the moral duty in such conditions because they were helping patients and every patient have only hope with the face of doctors. Moral duty is more important so doctors need to follow the moral regulations of medical treatments.

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