Week 2 Ethical Dilemma
Group A: An airline pilot goes for his regular medical checkup. The doctor discovers that he has developed a heart murmur. The pilot only has a month to go before he is eligible for retirement. The doctor knows this and wonders whether, under these unusual circumstances, she is justified in withholding the information about the pilot's condition.
I think in this situation, with it being medical issues, the doctor should do their job and help the person with what they can do to control the heart murmur with medicine and whatever else there is to do. Is the doctor in the wrong for not following her procedure when it comes to issues such as these? As a nursing student, if I was in this position as a doctor and something happened to the patient before his retirement, I would have a reminder every day that I could’ve done something to prevent the patient from being more ill or death. I think she would be in the wrong because if something happened to him, she could be liable for not following through what she is supposed to do as a doctor. She shouldn’t think of his retirement, she should think of how to fix this heart murmur. While it may be unfortunate for him, he should also think of his health too. He is in the hands of a professional and if she does not do her job then he could be in big trouble. Now another issue I think that can play into this is her beliefs and morals. What if she believes the heat murmur is not that serious? Then what happens if she does not treat because of her morals and then he dies the next day from his murmur not being treated? If she documents that he had one, then yes she would most likely be in trouble. But she should have morals that involve with helping others to become better. I think doctors and any medical staff need to have morals that concern the patient first before themselves or their jobs, like in the airline pilot’s case. Augustine’s theory is based on that no real happiness happens here. I think he would have wanted the doctor to let him wait until he retires so he could get his happiness and then worry about other issues. Aquinas believed in natural law, meaning ‘can be discovered by reason and cultivated by conscience”. I think he would have wanted the doctor to think of his health first before anything else. He would not want to risk anything even if the pilot only has a month until retirement. He has a conscience about what could happen if nothing is done now.