Before determining my opinion about the ethics involved in the case of ” Doctors as Reporters”… I need to define the word ethical. Personally when I think of something being ethical, I look at whether it seems moral or just. Ultimately, ethics are opinion based, depending on the person, their background on the subject or even experiences dealing with a certain topic of discussion. No one can stand up and say this is ethical and that’s that. Or visa versa. In order to decide ethics a person must support their opinion. In the current situation with doctors performing as pseudo-reporters and reality TV stars…I think it is somewhat exploiting the patient. The doctor is glorifying himself instead of solely worrying about the patient’s well-being. It seems sort of egotistical for these doctor’s to feel the need to perform surgeries in front of a camera. The country of Haiti is in a state of crisis. Washington Post put out an article claiming these doctors are performing a “balancing act” trying to also play the role as a reporter. Doctors need to spend more time invested in saving as many lives as they can, instead of getting microphones and video cameras set up to record surgeries. In this article, the writer is giving his opinion on the ethics of doctors playing journalists in the relief effort. Most of the blogs, articles, and reports that I have read on this topic have been negatively discussing this situation. Our class came to the consensus that the doctors should remained focused on the patients. We felt that there was no reason for the cameras in the operating room, or filming Anderson Cooper carrying a child, other than to dignify the people performing these acts.
