Yes, this is the biggest ethical question in healthcare: informed consent/denial.
And for some reason we don’t want to talk about (well, not ‘we’ because we are having that conversation, but we as in society in general). In our society at least there is the presupposition that a doctor — and by extension, medical scientists — are always right and infallible. And the thing is, they aren’t. No one is.
I’ve followed this topic closely in the past, mostly within context of cancer and childbirth. In both fields, a person’s right to choose is taken away any time there is a denial of treatment.
I believe what it comes down too is a generalised fear of death. Especially amongst doctors, the idea of someone dying is fucking scary. The Hippocrates Oath “above all do no harm” gets stuck in an interpretation where death is seen as harm.
And yet I have met people who have resolved their fear of death... they are willing to take the risks. They don’t enter the fight, but that doesn’t mean they give up trying to live. They accept the cancer and usually pursue natural methods of healing. They are the success stories.
Death is the elephant in the room that no one in the medical/healthcare professions ever want to talk about. But I think we need to. And we need to start trusting that people are free to make choices about treatment as long as they are informed.
😊🙏🏽☯️
Another wonderful addition!
It's good to see that there are so many people who see where the friction occurs.
Nobody want's to die, and the pharma boys use that very fact to steal our money.
Not always, there has been a lot of progress as well with modern medicine. But there is a lot of snake-oil out there. (I tend to think it is at least 50% but that's hard to prove).
This topic should be re-visited on a regular basis to explore options and solutions.