A Case Study:
There is a very old woman who called the vet to come over and clip her bird’s beak, because the bird was not acting its usual self. The old woman who was hard of hearing and hard of seeing adored the bird for many years. The vet came over and reached his hand into the bird’s cage when the bird fell limp in his hand. Startled, the vet told the woman that it would be better if he took the bird to his office and clipped the beak there. After leaving the woman’s house, the vet went to the pet store and bought and similar looking bird. The vet thought since she was hard of hearing and seeing, she would most likely not notice the different bird, and would be delighted to have her adored pet back to its usual self. So in groups we were to take this case study and decide if it was ethical to lie to the woman about her bird. The results were surprising. 20 people believed it was ethical for the vet to lie because of his good intentions, and 13 people believed it was unethical to lie to the woman, because he has a professional duty to tell the truth. My main argument in this case is it does not matter that there was a positive outcome through positive intention, because as a medical practitioner he has a professional duty to abide by a code of ethics, and by lying to the woman he is going against that code of ethics.
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2 comments:
Wow, I've never heard of that case before. I understand that the doctor's intentions were good but as you said, he has a code of professional ethics to adhere to. Also, just because the woman was elderly, doesn't mean she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. That's something I think people today underestimate.
I understand your argument that the veterinarian has a code of ethics to abide by. Moreover, I think that the code of ethics is strict and clearly delineates what he ought to do, however, we don't [exactly]know how the old lady felt about the bird in the first place. We know that she felt that something was wrong with the bird, so from this we can understand that she had some interest in the birds well being... However in Sissela Bok's book, a similar case is brought about where the author asks "Is lying to a patient permitted if the patient has a heart condition that will most likely cause distress to the patient and more then likely kill the patient? I believe that this was covered in chapter 4.
Yes there is a clearly deceiving statement, however, there is no malicious intent, no intent to hurt the old lady. The vet was not covering his (pardon my language) ass, as much as he was trying to keep the old widow happy and alive.
The negative consequences of his choice are also not presented as strictly negative in this case study for the reason that the old lady only notes a change in the birds demeanor. Other then that, the vets conscience is altered, however we must ask ourselves "was it worth it?" I think the answer was yes... however, that is my personal opinion.
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