20 Evaluation Essay Topics: Fresh Ideas about Medical Ethics

Medical ethics is a highly controversial and sensitive topic. It is highly debatable and prone to go in many ways. If you are writing an evaluation essay on medical ethics and find yourself in need of a topic, consider the 20 below:

Doctors and Physician Assisted Suicide
Nursing Theories: Which Theories Are the Most Ethical
The Ethics of Preventative Medicine
Religious Clashes: How Medical Ethics Confront Religious Beliefs
Cultural Bias and Medical Ethics
The Ethics of Care for the Mentally Handicapped
The Ethics of Pregnancy: When a Doctor Can Have Their Patient Arrested
Ethical Dilemmas for Doctors: When Parents Should Be Arrested for Abuse or Negligence
Office Place Ethics: When Medical Practitioners Fail to Uphold Office Standards
How Medical Ethics Differ in Asian Countries Compared to African Countries
When Medical Ethics Are Non-Existent: What Doctors Must Do in Foreign Countries
The Ethical Difficulties of Practicing Medicine Overseas
Ethical Standards Across the States: What Is Ethical
How to Monitor Ethics in the Medical Field
Why Medical Ethics Are Still Important
How Quality Medical Ethics Classes Are Taught
When It Is Medically Ethical to End a Life
Why Doctors Cannot End Lives of Suffering Individually
The Need for International Ethics in the Medical Field
Are Medical Ethics Same Everywhere?

Sample Evaluation Essay: Are Medical Ethics the Same Everywhere?

There are different standards for medical ethics around the world and in some cases cultural clashes can cause a rift. When people move to America they often keep their cultural practices as a part of who they are, and nowhere was this more prevalent than with the Hmong culture. But this also creates a string of ethical dilemmas for medical practitioners in the West who are legally bound to report certain ethical problems like a parent not following the advice of a doctor after signing to do so.

Hmong people often do things in ways unfathomable to Western practitioners because they believe that each condition, its cause, and its potential results, stem from something much different than what western doctors would see. Medicine is seen as a temporary fix among the Hmong, not a permanent thing. This can be an area of ethical concern when a medical condition warrants long term medication such as seizure medication, something parents are not willing to do. In such cases, doctors are legally required to report the parents and have the child taken away even if they know the parents have nothing but the deepest love for their child. Additionally, many Hmong avoid hospitals at all possible costs because they are viewed as charnel houses, where the spirits of dead people linger, not as places of healing like they are viewed by people in the West. This can present additional ethical concerns when people will not seek the medical attention they need or their family needs.

One example of this is childbirth. Hmong women who would otherwise not seek medical care, would go to the hospital for delivery incorrectly thinking that if they delivered at home the babies wouldn’t be allowed to be U.S. citizens. They naturally deliver healthy babies most of the time in spite of not receiving any Western prenatal care, due to their culturally nutritious diets, the low rate of smoking, the low rate of drinking, The babies, as a result, are often the right size for birth. There was a high prevalence of new mothers seeking medical attention in the delivery room during the 1980’s and 1990’s but nowhere else. For having such staunch beliefs against much of Western medicine, the love and desire of mothers to ensure the very best of chances for the child overruled any cultural apprehensions in this regard and resulted in mothers bearing their babies in a place they would otherwise have avoided just to give them the citizenship. This is truly an inspiring perspective if one takes the time to think about it. A great insight into the power of strong cultural values juxtaposed against maternal instincts.

The Hmong taught a lot of lessons to the Western culture, many of which are exposed in comparison to medical ethics for Hmong and for Americans. There is a serious problem with the high prevalence of antibiotic use in people and animals, as well as the advertisements for medications on television which inevitably encourage people to incorrectly believe they have symptoms and need medication. What is particularly bothersome though is the idea that Western medicine is always right even though it often treats only the symptoms individually and not the illness, something which results in people taking medication after medication to then treat subsequent symptoms that are the direct result of the previous medication. The Hmong embodied this concept wholly with their disregard to regular medication and the use of only those medicines which were needed. Another aspect of the culture which struck me was how the Hmong people, even those Christian converts, never gave up on their roots no matter what, always seeking out the traditional medications in tandem with Western medication.

Some Hmong patients will explain what treatment they thought would be best and remained optimistic about a particular condition. Many are adamant about Hmong healing and will not follow directions from Western doctors for medications or transfusions, which can represent child abuse and a serious ethical dilemma for western doctors responsible for reporting such behaviors. It seems that with such different beliefs, the treatment of symptoms by the Western medicine will continually conflict with treatment of the entire condition or cause as Eastern medicine generally seeks to do in practice.

References:
Boylan, Michael. Medical Ethics. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. Print.
Campbell, Alastair V and Alastair V Campbell. Medical Ethics. Auckland, N.Z.: Oxford University Press, 1997. Print.
Egendorf, Laura K. Medical Ethics. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 2005. Print.
Fadiman, Anne. The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1997. Print.
Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Crown Publishers, 2010. Print.
Torr, James D. Medical Ethics. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 2000. Print.
Veatch, Robert M. Medical Ethics. Sudbury, Mass.: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 1997. Print.

You can get professional help from a nursing essay writer who will complete your nursing paper on any topic.