Doing harm: living organ donors, clinical research and The Tenth Man.
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This paper examines the ethical difficulties of organ donation from living donors and the problem of causing harm to patients or research subjects at their request. Graham Greene explored morally similar questions in his novella, The Tenth Man. (+info)
Whose life is it anyway? A study in respect for autonomy.
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Brian Clark's drama, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, explores the difficulties of applying the principle of respect for autonomy to real-life circumstances. In the play a permanently disabled patient, who wishes to be allowed to die, raises moral questions about the adequacy of the autonomous agent, respect for the autonomy of others, the authority of the law, the allocation of society's resources, and the intrinsic value of human life. After a brief review of the story and definition of respect for autonomy, this paper cites passages from the play that dramatize the tension between respect for autonomy and these other moral concerns. There follows a review of relevant commentary from the classicists Kant and Mill and the modernists Childress and Gillon. The study concludes that although classical and contemporary philosophers have clarified and elaborated upon the relationship between ethical principles, they have not provided definitive guidelines. (+info)
The case of Medea--a view of fetal-maternal conflict.
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Medea killed her children to take away the smile from her husband's face, according to Euripides, an offence against nature and morality. What if Medea had still been carrying her two children, perhaps due to give birth within a week or so, and had done the same? If this would also have been morally reprehensible, would that be a judgment based on her motives or on her action? We argue that the act has multiple and holistic moral features and that, in fact, there is no absolute principle, such as the right of the fetus to life, which governs our moral judgments about fetal-maternal conflicts. We suggest that they illustrate a pervasive feature of human moral discourse and can only be addressed by attending to a range of negotiable moral considerations which depend on particular features of each situation. (+info)
Aristophanes' Wealth: ancient alternative medicine and its modern survival.
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The miraculous cure of the blind god Plutos ("Wealth') in Aristophanes' play illuminates some of the reasons why people have sought help in alternative medicine over the ages. Apart from limitations of conventional medicine these factors can be social, political, religious, psychological, and scientific. Alternative medicine may function in a complementary way to the conventional. Nevertheless, an overestimation of its therapeutic potentials by the public can lead to the domination of irrationalism, all in the name of liberation from the shackles of a mechanistic rationalism. (+info)
Death rates of characters in soap operas on British television: is a government health warning required?
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OBJECTIVE: To measure mortality among characters in British soap operas on television. DESIGN: Cohort analysis of deaths in EastEnders and Coronation Street, supplemented by an analysis of deaths in Brookside and Emmerdale. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Standardised mortality ratios and the proportional mortality ratio for deaths attributable to external causes (E code of ICD-9 (international classification of diseases, ninth revision). RESULTS: Staying alive in a television soap opera is not easy. Standardised mortality ratios for characters were among the highest for any occupation yet described (771 (95% confidence interval 415 to 1127) for characters in EastEnders), and this was not just because all causes of death were overrepresented. Deaths in soap operas were almost three times more likely to be from violent causes than would be expected from a character's age and sex. A character in EastEnders was twice as likely as a similar character in Coronation Street to die during an episode. CONCLUSIONS: The most dangerous job in the United Kingdom is not, as expected, bomb disposal expert, steeplejack, or Formula One racing driver but having a role in one of the United Kingdom's most well known soap operas. This is the first quantitative estimate of the size of the pinch of salt which should be taken when watching soap operas. (+info)
As seen on TV: observational study of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in British television medical dramas.
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OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency and accuracy with which cardiopulmonary resuscitation is portrayed in British television medical dramas. DESIGN: Observational study. SUBJECTS: 64 episodes of three major British television medical dramas: Casualty, Cardiac Arrest, and Medics. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Frequency of cardiopulmonary resuscitation shown on television; age, sex, and diagnosis of the patients undergoing resuscitation; rate of survival through resuscitation. RESULTS: Overall 52 patients had a cardiorespiratory arrest on screen and 3 had a respiratory arrest alone, all the arrests occurring in 40 of the 64 episodes. Of the 52 patients having cardiorespiratory arrest, 32 (62%) underwent an attempt at cardiopulmonary resuscitation; 8 attempts were successful. All 3 of the patients having respiratory arrests alone received ventilatory support and survived. On 48% of occasions, victims of cardiac arrest seemed to be less than 35 years old. CONCLUSIONS: Cardiorespiratory resuscitation is often depicted in British television medical dramas. Patients portrayed receiving resuscitation are likely to be in a younger age group than in real life. Though the reasons for resuscitation are more varied and more often associated with trauma than in reality, the overall success rate is nevertheless realistic. Widespread overoptimism of patients for survival after resuscitation cannot necessarily be blamed on British television medical dramas. (+info)