Don Case Study – Professional Ethics
Please consider Don’s case, and answer the questions below.
Don is a 55 yr. old male recently admitted into a hospital with a shortness of breath, fever and a dulled sense of taste. It is April 18, 2020. Tests have just confirmed that he is infected with the virus causing COVID-19. Medical staff are worried about Don. He is overweight, he suffers from poorly controlled diabetes, and he has early heart disease. Don feels that he recently turned a corner and started finally doing what his health care team had recommended for years by eating a restricted diet, and now this! COVID-19. Don entered the hospital expressing frustration with the disease, wondering if he even belongs in the hospital. He’s been a good patient otherwise as his condition worsened.
Don leans over on day to talk to a nurse and doctor on his medical team. “I’ve heard about this new medication “chloroquine”. Before I came to the hospital I read a few articles about how it’s saved many people who have the virus. I want to try it. Please. I don’t trust my chances on the ventilator, and all this treatment is just an experiment to see what works against the virus anyway, right? Other hospitals are offering it. Yeah, there’s skeptics, but me and my family are sold on chloroquine. I should have the right to try it. We’ve got to try whatever we can. “
Don’s family has been contacting his medical team, asking them, imploring them, to try what is really an old anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, to treat Don. This drug is also used to treat Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis, autoimmune diseases. The medical staff realizes that they don’t have good data on this off-label, COVID-19 use of the drug. However, their hospital does have several doses of the drug due to optimism about the drug by their state’s Governor and first-hand testimony and promotion that it worked in the U.S.. In truth, Don is right: the medical team feels they are learning about how to treat COVID-19 as they go, along with the rest of the world. Still, the whole medical team agrees that it’s an unproven treatment, it could be harmful, and they are fairly sure it won’t help. Most of the team believes, given this, that they should refuse Don’t request and not use the drug as part of his treatment.
Given this case, please answer the following questions:
- Is it likely Atul Gawande, given his essay for class, would support Don’s medical team in telling Don that they will not treat him with the requested medication? Why or why not? Please refer to your text in answering this question.
- Reflecting on “professional ethics”, namely, the rights and duties that arise in being a medical professional, what are a couple of issues in professional ethics that would apply to this case and shed light on whether it is right for his team to refuse Don and his family’s request for the treatment? Please briefly explain the issues and tie them to the case.
- Do you believe Don’s medical team would be justified (ethically speaking) in refusing his request? Why or why not? Please support your view. You may briefly refer to points from the earlier sections (a & b), but go beyond what you’ve said there in explaining your view.