Buy essay: Developing Ethical Policy – Medical Ethics

I would like to write about ethical issues corresponding to a newspaper article “Many Dying Cancer Patients Still Going for the Screening Test” written by Julie Steenhuysen. This problem is widely discussed in the USA and we should think about it with more details.
In the second half of the twentieth century medical theory and practice are undergoing fundamental changes. Today, medicine has the means not only to treat diseases but also to control human life. New biomedical technologies provide modern medicine a real opportunity to “give life” (artificial impregnation), to determine and change its qualitative parameters (genetic engineering, transsexual surgery), push the “time” of death (intensive care, transplantation, gerontology). But such terminal illness as cancer still exists and humanity doesn’t know how to overcome it.
First of all it is necessary to mention that cancer patients with only a few years to live need specific attitude to them. These people are considered terminally ill and according to Steenhuysen (2010), “for patients living with advanced cancer, cancer screening should not be a routine procedure,” said lead researcher Dr. Camelia S. Sima, an assistant attending biostatistician.”

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Opponents of this position persist in their opinion about benefits of such screening and accuse the state in attempts to save money, but Dr. Therese Bevers of University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center said that “cancer patients who have less than 10 years to live will not benefit from these kinds of screening tests, and should be spared the added time and worry they may cause.” I agree with doctor’s opinion, because every screening is a stress and pain for patients and people may be subject to unnecessary risk due to not only psychological distress, but also biopsies and subsequent testing.
Developing ethical policy we see that laws are made and accepted by people. At the heart of all our problems in medicine, including ethical sphere is the human factor. Laws accepted by Parliament, are prompted by such attitude to medicine, what is the relationship to medicine in society. I consider that people diagnosed with cancer and who have only a few years to live should have an opportunity to “rest” from different tests and additional unnecessary risks.
Every risk should be justified and Steenhuysen (2010) stated in her article about additional screening and different tests that “It’s not just about saving healthcare dollars. I’m just thinking about the patient. Do we need to be putting them through this if they are not going to benefit from it?”
Thus, taking into account all above discussed information we could come to the conclusion that a question about necessity of additional screening should be decided by a doctor, who take care about own patients. Screening is not only medical and science question, but it is also ethical question. Insistence on the promotion of screening prohibition for terminally ill persons is under an economic rationale. I agree that such screening really require a lot of money and sometimes these costs will be better to use on people who have an opportunity to be treated. On my opinion issue discussed in the article “Many Dying Cancer Patients Still Going for the Screening Test” has a dual character and the one final decision should be accepted only after long discussions and additional researches.

References
Steenhuysen, J. (2010, October 12). “Many Dying Cancer Patients Still Going for the Screening Test.”