Recently in Medical Ethics Category

The Justice Department has laid out new guidelines stating that, in states where marijuana is legal for medical use, neither suppliers nor patients should be targeted for prosecution.

I recently had an interesting debate about health care with my brother, a doctor in the Navy. As debates between the two of us generally go, we circled around a number of topics before ending the call. One such topic ended with the shared opinion (a shared opinion is mighty rare when it comes to we two siblings) that we wished more people accepted, medically, that sometimes bad things just happened.

Health care workers are on the front lines of the battle against H1N1 this year. So why not look at the question of whether it ought to be mandatory for them to receive swine flu vaccinations using a military metaphor?

When I first read the MSNBC headline, "Woman Implanted with Wrong Embryo to Give Birth", I moved straight past it, thinking it sounded a bit too much like a supermarket tabloid to interest me. I'm glad I took a closer look, because I now feel it's a story worthy of the "Moral Monday" title - though also incredibly sad.

According to this account of Mike and Carolyn Savage's TODAY show interview, soon after the couple received the happy news that their in vitro fertilization process was a success, they  learned that Carolyn had been implanted with the wrong embryo. Faced with this shocking reality, the Savages had a choice - aborting the pregnancy, or seeing it through, only to give up the baby in the end.

Their decision to carry the baby to term is not why I applaud them. Or, I suppose, it's not that in particular--their choice is, after all, incredibly brave. However, it's their handling of the pain and disappointment, as well as their kindness and understanding of the emotional toll on everyone involved that particularly touched me. Carolyn told Meredith Viera:

"What we expressed to them is that we know they did not ask for this. They were at home with their family minding their own business. We are not going to impress ourselves into their lives. Of course, we will wonder about this child every day for the rest of our lives. We have hopes for him, but they're his parents, and we'll defer to their judgment on when and if they ever tell him what happened and any contact that's afforded us. We just want to know he's healthy and happy."

The Savages followed their personal code of ethics straight down the line, under the toughest of circumstances. If they hadn't--if they had made the 'other' choice--would we be forced to brand that choice as unethical?

I would be forced to say yes, though ethics don't often account for the state of humanity and all the complex emotions that tag along with it. I suppose it would also depend on whose code of ethics you subscribe to; that of a higher power that states all life is precious, or that which states you have no obligation to anyone other than yourself and the ones you love.

What do you think? Did the Savages make the most ethical of choices, the kindest and most generous of choices, or...both?

Last weekend I returned from a lovely, restful weekend trip to San Francisco. As I boarded the red-eye back to New York, I found myself hoping that just this once, I would have the ideal flying neighbor--the non-existent one.

What I got instead was a middle-aged man, sniffling, sneezing, coughing his way through the 5-hour trip. I am the opposite of a hypochondriac--I spend most of my time denying disease and infection exist. But this really threw me.

Come on, man! Ever heard of swine flu? And by the way, you just sneezed all over me...sorry I just happen to be sitting so close. Also, don't worry if I can't hear my movie because your hacking cough is SO LOUD; I'll just jack up the volume.

As I covertly gave him the evil eye (covert only because he was so wrapped up in his illness it would have taken a punch to the face to get his attention), I also envisioned the movie "Outbreak" in my head. I composed angry letters to this man asking him how in @!$$#@ he had justified getting on the plane that night when obviously he was harboring infection. He might as well be a terrorist! (I kid).

Should he have gotten off the plane? Cancelled his trip? He was most likely much like me; returning from a lovely weekend vacation and desperate to get back home. There's nothing you want more than your own bed when you're sick.

And canceling your trip? That costs money! At least it does if the airline gods don't take kindly to you and don't cut you a break.

All in all, despite my ire, I have to sympathize with the man's plight. "What!! Sympathize?" you ask. "You've spent the last page getting angry at him for spreading contagion!"

Weeelll...yes. But I also left out a tiny detail. I was a little sick myself.

Dental plans are the worst, aren't they? Some of you may remember my worst-date story in which I also described an accident that resulted in a mouthful of broken teeth - after paying more than half those costs out-of-pocket, I...

I've been hesitant to wade into any discussion of health care reform because, frankly, it feels too big for me. For a lot of Americans, I suspect. And besides, what exactly are the ethical angles to examine? Too many...

I came across this infertility post today. In it, the author, Melissa Ford, questioned a Dear Abby column responding to a reader on the subject of financing infertility. Ford found Dear Abby's response to be ignorant.The reader was asking for...

Normal 0 As a single girl, I must admit breastfeeding stories don't often catch my eye. So, please forgive me for being a little late on the "let's lynch the drunken breastfeeding mother" bandwagon.Honestly, I'm reluctant to lynch the...

Back in 2006, Maria del Carmen Bousada gave birth to a set of twins - at the ripe old age of 66. Three years later, she's passed away, leaving behind two young children. After Bousada became pregnant using in...

The case of British conductor Sir Edward Downes and his wife Joan, who, it was reported today, traveled to a Swiss clinic to avail themselves of legally assisted suicide, is raising ethical, legal and moral questions worldwide. Edward, 85, had...

People keep sending me the oddest ethical issues. Like this one, which came by way of a pal living in Prague. She stumbled across a blog post written by a guy who had been invited to--get this--an abortion party....

So I have this great doctor. He cured my migraines (well, made them a lot better) when no one else could. My mom, who's suffered similar headaches for decades, swears by him. And he's a really nice guy. He's charming,...

UPDATE: Interesting NY Times article asking some of the same questions as my original post about Steve Jobs' liver transplant. Check the NY Times piece out! Because of this article, and because of the many comments I received on my own,...

Over the past couple of weeks, the news has been filled with headlines about 13-year-old Daniel Hauser, a Minnesota boy diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. Citing religious grounds (the family are members of the Nemenhah Band of Native Americans, who are...

I was just watching this Diane Sawyer clip (see video embedded below) on ABC News about the 66-year-old British woman, Elizabeth Adeney, now 8 months pregnant and soon to become the UK's oldest-ever mother. She's a successful career woman who chose...

Today I took the coward's way out. Two days ago, I had an appointment with an acupuncturist--someone I hadn't been to before. I'd been suffering from migraines, and was told the treatment might be a good holistic alternative to some heavy-duty...

Here's a sniffly, sneezy, gross, icky, potentially deadly (but thankfully so far mild) hot topic to talk about. The ethics of swine flu. Oh, excuse me, Obama administration and U.S. Pork Industry... H1N1 Influenza.Vice President Biden stirred up controversy recently with ill-considered...