Media contributions
1Media contributions
Title Are doctors right to refuse patient's demand to amputate his leg? Man, 54, who has been in constant pain for 28 YEARS after snapping a knee ligament playing football believes he would have a better quality of life as an amputee with a prosthetic limb Media name/outlet Mail Online Media type Web Country/Territory United Kingdom Date 5/09/22 Description ‘If someone carries that gene there is a reasonable degree of certainty that they will get the cancer if they live to a decent age,’ says Dr Iain Brassington, an ethicist from Manchester University. ‘But if someone without the faulty BRCA gene is just terrified of getting cancer and wants their breasts or ovaries removed, then I would be a lot more wary of it being ethical, as the risk profile is much lower.’
In the case of an amputation, says Dr Brassington: ‘Medical staff will never know if refusing it is the right decision, but this is defensible based on the evidence available, and that is what matters ethically.’ However, this becomes clouded by the fact that, as Professor Wilkinson puts it, ‘each of us have a sense of what makes life meaningful’.URL https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11182641/Are-doctors-right-refuse-patients-demand-amputate-leg.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ito=1490&ns_campaign=1490 Persons Iain Brassington
Keywords
- medical ethics