Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Ethics

  • Rethinking public health law and ethics—A regional perspective

    Nadav DavidovitchBeer Sheva, Israel Public health emerged as an organized discipline during the 19th century with the goal of improving the health of a nation as a whole. While its initial interests centered on infectious diseases, sanitation, and hygiene, its current health scope has grown to include issues such as health promotion, the rise of…

  • Let us all be well

    Michael KonikLos Angeles, California, USA Diseases work insidiously, hiding out in hard-to-see places. A badly compromised body often looks normal on the outside, especially if the illness is concentrated in one area. Some systems and organs continue to function perfectly while another organ or system fails. We don’t know disease is lurking in our genes…

  • Death and the organ donor

    Karen DyerUnited Kingdom Historically the “death debate” has been long and intensive, and the definition of death has evolved over the centuries. The ancient civilizations looked for an “absence of a heartbeat” and a “lack of breathing.” By the eighteenth century, however, fears of a misdiagnosis of death led doctors to suggest that the only…

  • Medical autonomy and vaccines: A Kantian Imperative

    Justin Le BlancPhiladelphia, United States In The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, Kant seeks to establish a concept of duty based solely on reason. He believed that one must not just act in “accordance with duty . . .” but also for “duty’s sake.”1 He argues that reason provides the foundation upon which…

  • A life cut short

    Joshua BaruBenjamin MbaChicago, Illinois, USA The Schwartz Center Rounds program provides a forum for an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental case-based discussion of the emotional and interpersonal underpinnings of healthcare providers. The following is a description of a recent Schwartz Center Rounds session at Cook County Hospital. The case. A 23-year-old Indian man was driving with his…

  • Medical students’ attitudes toward torture

    Jonathan BeanDavid NgHakan DemirtasPatrick Guinan This article was first published in TORTURE Journal, Volume 18, Number 2, 2008. Abstract Torture, whether it be domestic or war related, is a public health issue of current concern. It is the position of the American Medical Association (AMA), The World Medical Association (WMA), the United Nations Declaration and…

  • Reader’s response: Is it ethical to bring religion into medicine?

      JMS PearceLondon, England Dr. Patrick Guinan raises many important issues in his paper “Is it ethical to bring religion into medicine?” in Hektoen International, Volume 2, No 1 – Winter 2010. He says that “a new religion called complementary or alternative medicine is threatening his territory.” Though I share his implied views of these…

  • Naming diseases

    JMS PearceHull, United Kingdom I tried to unveil the stillness of existence through a counteracting murmur of words, and, above all, I confused things with their names: that is belief.— Jean-Paul Sartre, The Words Disease implies the converse of health, but even health itself is difficult to define. With the gifts of technology the practice…

  • Albert Schweitzer: physician philosopher

    “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” In a different world Albert Schweitzer would have been a saint, painted by Uccello or Bellini with angels in the desert, shown pulling out a thorn from a lion’s paw or…

  • Confidentiality and privacy in public hospitals

    David O. IraborIbadan, Nigeria In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, healthcare professionals are bound by ethical codes not to disclose information given to them by their patients. Yet despite the best of efforts, neither confidentiality nor privacy can always be easily guaranteed, as exemplified by a look at problems encountered at a public hospital…