Kenneth Pike
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Medical ethics?
Convicted rapist Kenneth Pike, of Auburn, N.Y., is expected to undergo a life-saving heart transplant that could cost up to $800,000 — a price that will be paid courtesy of New York state taxpayers.
The expense has outraged many crime victim advocates and community members, who say they cannot understand how the justice system can provide big-tag services for convicted felons arguably at the expense of innocent patients.
And the question of whether prisoners should receive equal, if not better, health care than law-abiding citizens has been the heart of a decades-long debate among medical ethicists.
In 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prisoners were entitled to the same medical and dental treatment as everyone else in their community. Prisons that withhold necessary care from inmates can be held liable for violating constitutional bans against cruel and unusual punishment.
“We are constitutionally obligated to provide health care services to any inmate,” said Peter Cutler, citing the 8th Amendment of the Constutition. “We’re a state agency doing our job.”
Perhaps the taxpayers could convince the state that a penectomy is also in order.
Bobby – again, we’ll just have to disagree and live with it.
If a doctor refuses to treat a patient, that is a violation of medical ethics.
If a court demands that medical care be provided to prisoners, that is a legal issue.
There is no involvement of medical ethics in this case. A doctor examined the patient – a prisoner – and determined the best course of therapy would be a transplant. The State agreed and began making arrangements for it to happen. It is the State’s decision – not the medic’s! I.e. no medical ethics question. You don’t like it? Vote the bastards out.
BTW – I’m still in Cambodia just across the border from Thailand. Close enough that I can use my Thai sim card. I’m doing this on my netbook tethered to my Nexus One. Egad! I Love Tech! I keep remembering back to my days in Angola when I would write my email, save it to a floppy disk. give it the pilot of our weekly supply plane and wait. He would take the disk to Luanda and give it to our admin team. They would send my email and download any I’d received. This the pilot would bring me on a floppy the next week. Two week turnaround for email! For more urgent comms we had a fax machine but it worked through a short wave radio and almost never functioned correctly. The last couple of decades have changed communications so much, I sometimes feel I’m living in a science fiction world.
Then the shooting starts again.
Animby–several times when we were remote I’d get the locals on my short wave radio with a patch to the phone system. Short wave was actually some kind of long wave radio that could bounce off the ionosphere. It didn’t always work but it usually worked. Then most of the time, no one at home answered. But everyone got a warm feeling that we tried.
You mentioned a few days ago there was weapons fire in the area? Shouldn’t you have left by now? I think thats part of medical ethics too–living to save another life tomorrow.
If you just slow down a bit===everything is medical ethics.
Thanks for your concern but I’m nowhere near the fighting. But gunshots carry a long way. Light artillery even further! Reminds me of when I was in Taliqan in the north of Afghanistan. We used to sit on the roof of the building, drinking warm beer and watching the NATO bombers way off in the distance. The sound is very different than the effects used in the movies for distant combat and not at all like thunder. Believe me, I’m a coward. I’ve only been real danger a few times in my career.
I guess cowardice is sort of a medical ethics thing.
If you have a serious medical problem and can’t cover the bills just shoot a cop car and give up. The government will see to it you are taken care of if the cop doesn’t murder you.
The problem with this country (there he goes again,) is that everybody talks about killing but nobody is willing to put their money where there pie holes are.
Next time somebody is going to fry, hang, get shot, get a lethal injection, let those who are all for it step up and hold the switch, noose, rifle, needle and put their principles into action.
Then we’ll know who thinks so little of some other human being that he can pull the plug and walk away.
Until then, I’m calling bullshit on all of you.
Peepod–what are you? In a race to the bottom contesting against Alfie??? No shortage of volunteers to pull the trigger or whatever you have. Hell, I’d have to listen to my better angels not to flip the switch on you and alfie and you haven’t even killed anyone to my knowledge. But don’t for a minute think I think this position of yours is driven by an overestimation of the humanity of your fellow man. No, I think the stupidity of the lie just feels that good in your mouth, but even better as you spit it out. Its only the rest of us having to look at that sputum that are disgusted by is fact, and its source.
#37,
If you have a serious medical problem and can’t cover the bills just shoot a cop car and give up. The government will see to it you are taken care of
Are you serious? That sounds more like a rational argument FOR universal, affordable, health care than anything else.
The government is responsible for housing inmates with basic necessities, this is not a 4-star hotel wine and dine, with medical/dental treatment. Damn, hell, they’re in prison because they committed a crime and forfeited most of their rights as a US citizen.
Inmates should have basic medical and dental services. Anything more, the advance service is available for them, but the state shouldn’t pay. They need to find a way to pay from somewhere else.