Tag Archives: Ethics and Morality

First, do no harm

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Oh My God!

Western practice of Medicine traces its origins back to Greek Medicine which required every doctor to take an oath called Hippocratic Oath, swearing to practice in accordance with certain norms of morality and ethics. Hippocrates was the first known Greek physician and the oath is named after him. Following are the excerpts from this oath:

I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgement, and I will do no harm or injustice to them.

I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.

In purity and according to divine law will I carry out my life and my art.

I will not use the knife, even upon those suffering from stones, but I will leave this to those who are trained in this craft.

Into whatever homes I go, I will enter them for the benefit of the sick, avoiding any voluntary act of impropriety or corruption, including the seduction of women or men, whether they are free men or slaves.

Whatever I see or hear in the lives of my patients, whether in connection with my professional practice or not, which ought not to be spoken of outside, I will keep secret, as considering all such things to be private. (Source: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/greek/greek_oath.html)

Hindu mythology refers to divine twin horsemen doctors named as Ashwini Kumars, as referred in Rigveda. Further in the mythology it is said that  ‘vaidyo narayano harihi‘, which means that the doctor is equal to God. It is believed that since God can not come personally to heal, he sends his chosen ones to heal those suffering from pain.

The Ethics committee of Medical Council of India appears to have delving to initiate probe into the issue of corrupt practice by certain renowned Doctors which has been reported as under:

It is alleged that the three experts (Dr Randeep Guleria, Professor of medicine, All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS); Dr Satish Lahoti, KBN medical College, Gulbarga (Karnataka) and; Dr Appoorva Mukherjee, RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata) based in three different places allegedly sent almost identical letters of recommendation for the drug Clevudine. ……….. These doctors wrote that clinical trials were not even required for the drug. “Is it sheer co-incidence that doctors, sitting miles away from each other, gave opinions on a drug which is word-by-word identical,” ………. “There is adequate documentary evidence to come to the conclusion that many opinions were actually written by the invisible hands of drug manufacturers and experts merely obliged by putting their signatures. ……… They went out-of-the-way to give unsoliticited advice, in identical language, to the DCGI to give permission to the company to market the drug without conducting mandatory clinical trials in India,” the committee said.

In another case, seven doctors from different cities are believed to have given opinion over a drug which, the committee said, was banned abroad. The doctors allegedly involved in this case were: Dr Kalpana Ernest of CMC Vellore, Dr Bansari Goswami of NS Medical College Hospital, Kolkata; Dr D Arvind Kumar and Dr B Prahlad of Gandhi Medical College, Secunderabad; Dr Pramod Kumr Mallick of SCB Medical College, Cuttack; Dr Satish B Dharap of LTM Medical College and General Hospital, Mumbai and; Dr Promila Pandhi of PGIER Chandigarh. (http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_dna-special-the-shocking-medical-scam_1688378)

BTW the above drug Clevudine, has been discontinued in other countries due to its side effect which cause myopathy (muscular weakness) in patients.

If we seek treatment from any of these doctors we should be beware that in all probability we are guinea pigs with pockets and these doctors are businessmen/women with the sole objective to accumulate money; even at the cost of human life. So these Gods are not worth it. Just pseudo Gods. Oh My God!

© Sandeep Bhalla

Superfluous replaces the NEWS. Why read it.

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After subscribing to newspapers for about 33 years I stopped reading it from this year. The reason that the news has hit its nadir. From information to sensationalism to entertainment to superfluous. I have seen all. Enough. Read on:

The protest was lodged after Henry made comments about the pronunciation of Delhi Chief MinisterSheila Dikshit’s name, the Dominion Post newspaper reported. The correct pronunciation is ‘DIKS-it’. Angry over the racist remarks against Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on New Zealand’s prime news channel, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna is learnt to have asked South Block to summon its High Commissioner, Rupert Holborow, as New Delhi issued a “strong” demarche, demanding “demonstrative action” against the TV anchor. (source New Zealand envoy expresses ‘regret’ as India objects to Sheila slur.

Controversial Henry do not seek news but creates it with superfluous:

In March 2009, Henry caused offence by pointing out the facial hair of female guest anti-nuclear campaigner and Greenpeace worker Stephanie Mills.[4] TVNZ received a “handful” of complaints to which Henry was unrepentant stating “I certainly have no intention of apologising to people who have written in and complained. The key thing to me is what a fortunate life they must have that they can afford time and energy to complain about such an insignificant thing.”

In August 2009, Henry referred to homosexuals as “unnatural” causing a complaint to be laid with the Broadcasting Standards Authority.[5] In February 2010 the BSA declined to uphold the complaint.

In November 2009, Henry sparked controversy over comments he made about singer Susan Boyle and his on-air use of the term ‘retarded’ to describe her. His comments led to almost two hundred complaints to the Broadcasting Standards Authority, which regulates broadcast radio and television content within New Zealand.[6]

In October 2010, Henry was again the subject of complaints, after questioning whether the Governor-General, Sir Anand Satyanand, was “even a New Zealander”. He went on to ask “Are you going to choose a New Zealander who looks and sounds like a New Zealander this time … are we going to go for someone who is more like a New Zealander this time?”[7][8] Sir Anand, who is of Indian descent, was born and raised in Auckland. Henry attracted criticism from public figures including Prime Minister John Key, whom Henry was interviewing when he made the remarks, Labour’s leader Phil Goff and New Zealand’s race relations commissioner Joris de Bres. Henry later issued a statement of apology for his comments.[7][9] After initially expressing its support for Henry, TVNZ announced the following day that it had suspended the presenter for two weeks without pay.[10]

Following the decision to suspend Henry, it also emerged that TVNZ had continued to promote a recent clip in which Henry referred to New Delhi‘s chief minister Sheila Dikshit as “the dip shit woman” and “Dick Shit“, going on to state that “it’s so appropriate, because she’s Indian, so she’d be dick-in-shit wouldn’t she, do you know what I mean? Walking along the street… it’s just so funny.”[11] New Zealand Indian Central Association president Paul Singh Bains said the fact that TVNZ was still promoting the clip on its website showed it had “totally lost the plot” and was insensitive to the offence Henry had caused.[12] Following at least four complaints against this video, TVNZ channel removed it from the ‘Video extras” section of their website. (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Henry_(broadcaster))

Standard or journalism is falling to pathetic levels. May God help us in surviving it.