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Medical Technology
Joshua Burton
Ethics and medical care have been vitally linked since the study of medicine began. From the fourth century B.C. when Hippocrates composed the Hippocratic Oath, the ethical treatment of the patient has been paramount to medical practitioners. The summative statement of a modern translation of the Hippocratic Oath reads, “To keep the good of the patient as the highest priority” (Hippocratic Oath). As technology advances the opportunities to improve life or prolong it have increased, straining the ethical standards of health care. Many new technologies start with the idea of “helping” the human condition. Advances to combat chronic illnesses, heal traumatic injuries, prolong life, or to just make living easier start with the greatest intentions, but can easily turn into ethical dilemmas. Just because we have the capabilities to prolong life, improve it, extend it, duplicate it, or create it, doesn’t necessarily mean we should. Are these technological advances always the best thing for the patient? Some of the main topics in the media these days are access to electronic medical records, cloning, and stem cell research.
With advances in computer technology medical records have started to be stored digitally. While only a small percentage of American hospitals use electronic medical records, this number will eventually increase as legislation requires more and more health care institutions to implement the electronic medical records citing patient safety. The use of digital medical records increases the opportunity for patients’ pertinent medical information to be viewed and possibly nefariously used by more people; making adequate confidentiality a major concern. The number of people that are capable of viewing a patients records is staggering, “roughly 150 people (from doctors and nurses to technicians and billing clerks) have access to at least part of a patient's records during a hospitalization, and 600,000 payers, providers and other entities that handle providers' billing data have some access. Multiple access points over an open network like the Internet increases possible patient data interception” (“Electronic Medical Records”). While legislation such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and local laws do their best to suppress the possibility of this information getting into the wrong hands, the possibility of information leaks increases as more and more care facilities transition to digital records. While the portability and possible cost savings (an estimated 11 billion annually) of electronic medical records are wonderful advances, are they worth the possible breach of millions of individual’s confidential information?
Most talk of cloning refers to reproductive cloning. In reproductive cloning a host cell’s DNA is extracted and new DNA inserted. This cell is then treated with chemicals or electricity to excite the cell and kick off cell division. As the cell continues to divide it does so with the new genetic makeup of the inserted DNA. Once the cells have reached a suitable size they are transferred into the uterus of a female host where is continues to grow until birth. There have been many cloned animals, one of the more famous being Dolly the sheep, but to date there has never been a successful human clone. Since the DNA is taken from an adult donor, the new organism created is an exact duplicate of the donor. Twins are exact duplicates of each other, each having the exact same DNA. “Due to the inefficiency of animal cloning (only about 1 or 2 viable offspring for every 100 experiments) and the lack of understanding about reproductive cloning, many scientists and physicians strongly believe that it would be unethical to attempt to clone humans. Not only do most attempts to clone mammals fail, about 30% of clones born alive are affected with "large-offspring syndrome" and other debilitating conditions” (Cloning Fact Sheet). While the technology for cloning is still evolving, there will soon be a day where cloning will not only be more understood, but technically available. While there are no federal statutes banning human cloning in America, as the reality nears there will surely be more interest in creating laws to define the scope of this highly charged topic. The foreseeable use for reproductive cloning beyond cloning human beings is the possibility of cloning human organs for transplant. The ethical dilemma again rises, because we can create human life and organs, does that mean we should?
Stem cells are unspecialized cells that have the potential to be split into tissue or organ cells. These cells have great interest to scientists. They could be used replace or repair tissues or organs in the body. Stem cell research helps understand how cells divide and how they could be used to fix abnormal divisions that often cause cancer. For this research to happen, scientists need to remove parts of an embryo containing the unspecialized cells. This destroys the embryo. The ethical dilemma is defining when an embryo is considered a human being. Is it at conception or when it has developed a heart beat? There are studies being done where the parts of the cell that are needed for study can be found from the human skin. Other studies involve taking cells from the body and then,” turn those cells into stem cells, and use those stem cells to develop a personalized, immune-rejection-free cure for the disease afflicting that individual” (ProteomTech, Inc.). These stem cells could be used to grow new organs for patients in need without any worry of rejection to the new organ. While this technique is being worked on now, the technology to duplicate it and make it a viable method is still years in the making. This technique, once perfected, promises to be a great turning point in stem cell research, because ”using recombinant proteins to make iPS cells is simpler, faster, and cheaper than the currently used methods, making the iPS technology more practical, economical, and possible to commercialize” (ProteomTech, Inc.). Stem cells have been used for medical treatments for autoimmune diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and for patients with spinal cord injuries. Cloning parts could save millions of people from dying while waiting for an organ to become available. Even if we can eventually eliminate the ethical problem of destroying fetuses to obtain stem cells, the question of whether or not we should harness the power of this immense technology we’ve created still stands.
These examples are only a few of the mounting problems in health care that technology generates. More problems will be added to the list as new technologies arise. We as the human race must look forward into the future and be ready for these technologies. It’s our job to anticipate the ethical dilemmas that technology could possibly create in health care, and be ready to answer the question of what is right for the human race. Are these new technologies best for the patients they are meant to help? Do they do more harm to society than they do good for the individual?
Works Cited
"Cloning Fact Sheet." Human Genome Project Information. Sept. 2008. Human
Genome Project. 18 Apr. 2009
<http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/elsi/
cloning.shtml#whatis>.
"Electronic Medical Records." Wikipedia. 2009. Web.16 Apr. 2009
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_medical_record>.
"Hippocratic Oath." Wikipedia. Web.16 Apr 2009
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Hippocratic_oath#Modern_versions_and_alternatives>.
"ProteomTech, Inc. and Collaborators Make Major Breakthrough in Stem Cell
Research." PR-inside.com 23 April 2009 Web.23 Apr 2009
<http://www.pr-inside.com/
proteomtech-inc-and-collaborators-make-r1204866.htm>.