Question

1.Describe the paradox of the phrase "benevolent deception". Are doctors who allow their patients to be involved in potentially harmful clinical treatments in compliance with their Hippocratic Oath? What does the use of “a miserable specimen” by a physician reveal about his/her attitude toward a patient? (Be sure to include supportive examples from either The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks or the US Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee.)

2. An older married couple without children was involved in a car accident that left the wife with brain damage and her husband in a vegetative state. The wife was willing to liquidate their assets in order to fund additional life support for her husband in the hope that he would regain consciousness at some point. However, doctors at the hospital were debating whether or not the wife had sufficient mental capacity to make an informed decision regarding her husband’s care. You are one of the doctors at that hospital who serve on the medical ethics team. Give your recommendation incorporating Dr. Hopkins’s lecture on the conflicts in the social psychology of paternalism and public health care.

Answer 1

1. The paradox of “benevolent deception” holds true in not only thr famous cases such as , the “immortal life of Henrietta lacks” but also in day to day, non highlighted cases. Though the term in itself is self contradictory, this sort of deception is not always for the benefit of the people. As a result of such behaviors, there would be false hope given to the patient who is in actual need of treatment.

Before 1950s, the sea of informed consent was not present. As a result of this, when patients would be treated, they would often be deceived by the doctors. The Hippocratic oath states “first to do no harm”, where, the doctors did not want to frighten their patients or confuse their patients who had already been on the edge and were vulnerable. The doctors of Henrietta did not tell her the truth since they felt compassionate towards her. As a result of this, Henrietta did not even get the chance to seek a second opinion. The discomfort that rose in her abdomen, transformed into pain that was excruciating. Doctors had agreed that the cancer had been fatal, as they found the mass blocking her urethra. None of them informed Henrietta. And she had been sent home, without knowing what happened to her,. She had on,h been recommended radiation.

She and her family believed that the doctors were working in order to ease her pain, but little did they know that the radiation was only meant to shrink the tumours till her death.

The paradox means that doctors earlier thought that if patient were not told about things, it would be okay, since they would be working in order to cure them and save them from the stress. Benevolent means good and causing no harm, whereas deception means to trick a person. Doctors thought that they have the right to decide anything for the patient and the emotions of the patient are not important.

According to the doctors, since the patient did not know about this, not knowing will not cause any harm to them. Doctors could not be questioned. She was not even aware that her cells had been taken by the doctor, neither was her family informed. The use of a miserable specimen meant that the doctor did not have much hopes about the use of the cells or did not know that these would come to much use.