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    • Showing only topics with the tag "health". Back to normal view

    25. Inside the Ethics Committee

      ~life Text 305 words
      Inside the Ethics Committee is a BBC Radio 4 programme. They describe it like this: Joan Bakewell is joined by a panel of experts to wrestle with the ethics arising from a real-life medical case....

      Inside the Ethics Committee is a BBC Radio 4 programme. They describe it like this:

      Joan Bakewell is joined by a panel of experts to wrestle with the ethics arising from a real-life medical case.

      Each episode is chaired by Bakewell, with a range of different experts (who all sit on hospital ethics committees), talking about the ethical difficulties faced by healthcare professionals (and the organisations they work for) in different real life cases.

      Some of it hasn't aged very well - there's an episode about HIV testing an unconscious patient after a needle-stick injury. With advances in treatment and reductions in stigma I think would have made it a very different programme today.

      But most of it is pretty good, and explains in detail how some decisions are made.

      For example: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0643x61

      Ashley is 14 years old when doctors discover a brain tumour. Tests reveal that it's highly treatable; there's a 95% chance of cure if he has a course of radiotherapy.

      Ashley begins the treatment but he has to wear a mask which makes him very anxious and the radiotherapy itself makes him sick. He finds it increasingly difficult to bear and he starts to miss his sessions.

      Despite patchy treatment Ashley's cancer goes into remission. He and his mother are thrilled but a routine follow-up scan a few months later shows that the cancer has returned.

      Ashley is adamant that he will not have the chemotherapy that is recommended this time. He threatens that he will run away if treatment is forced on him. Although Ashley is only 15 he is 6'2" and restraining him would not be easy.

      Should the medical team and his mother persuade him to have the chemotherapy? Or should they accept his decision, even though he is only 15?

      5 votes

    27. Former nail biters --- how did you quit?

      ~talk Text 59 words
      I'm sitting here reading about Jeremy Renner's failed app and new Amazon store and filing my nails down. I've mostly stopped biting, but I still do every so often. So if you've quit, how the hell...

      I'm sitting here reading about Jeremy Renner's failed app and new Amazon store and filing my nails down. I've mostly stopped biting, but I still do every so often.

      So if you've quit, how the hell did you do it? The bad tasting nail polish stuff doesn't taste bad enough for me... is there an Allen Carr for biters?

      22 votes