An editorial in a Pakistani newspaper offers this seemingly commonsensical ethical directive: do not give patients treatment until they have been correctly diagnosed (via testing procedures) to have the condition the treatment is meant for. Following this train of thought, a contrast is worked up between what the author calls 'speculation-based' and 'evidence-based' medicine. The former -- typically represented by 'quacks' -- can lead to all sorts of bad consequences, such as the potential harm caused when patients are given treatment for conditions they do not actually have.In contexts of poverty, however, the connection between testing and treatment often gets complicated. Sometimes the access to treatment is better than the access to testing; sometimes it is the reverse. When...
A couple of months ago, the 'conscientious objector' argument in medicine made headlines when the US Department of Health and Human Services proposed regulations that aim to protect health professionals who, for reasons of moral or religious conscience, are unwilling to provide certain medical services to patients. As everybody knows, 'certain medical services' is code for abortion, and no topic divides Americans ideologically more effectively than abortion does. 'Pro-choice' advocates argue that the head of Health and Human Services, Mike Leavitt, not so much concerned about 'discrimination' towards health professionals or freedom of conscience. The real concern is on the embryos and fetuses. But between talk about the conscience of the physician and talk about the fetus, something gets...
Okwe is a Nigerian cab driver who moonlights as a hotel desk clerk. Because he was a doctor in Africa -- but not able to practice in London -- he finds himself giving what medical treatment he can to fellow immigrants. Okwe shares an apartment with Senay, a Turkish Muslim woman, who works as a maid in the same hotel as Okwe. She has a rough time of it: a visit from the immigration service forces her to quit her job in the hotel and work in a clothing sweatshop, where the boss threatens to report her to the authorities unless she perform oral sex on him. Juan, the manager of the hotel, runs an illegal operation at the hotel where immigrants sell their kidneys for something precious: a new passport, a new identity. Senay, in desperate financial need, agrees to exchange a kidney for a...