Medical Ethics

I was sitting at the smoking benches with another boy who was rambling about something as I was tuning him out. We both didn’t have lighter, but had cigarettes. I was beginning to become frustrated with him because he is associated with people who I do not favor much and was asking me my views on so-and-so and then telling me his own views.

Then an older gentleman showed up holding a cigar while wearing cargo shorts and a theater shirt. It was apparent that he wasn’t a professor but I got that feeling that he had seen a lot in his life. I politely asked him if I could use a match of his and he replied in a very gentle manner.

This man’s name is Stewart and I would put him up at about sixty years plus, a little over weight, and he had a jolly sense to him. He was losing his hair and had a full beard that was completely white. I instantly liked him.

I asked him if he was taking a theater arts class here and he said yes. We discussed for a few moments about how the class is, and how he enjoys the interactions he receives along with the task of memorizing lines and rehearsals. I asked him what his profession was seeing how he wasn’t taking any other classes but just the one for fun.

It turns out that he is a retired psychiatrist and worked down in L.A. for the majority of his career. I am assuming that he did well for himself if he can retire in Santa Barbara and have a happy life taking theater art classes while smoking nice cigars. We then began the topic of medical professions. I asked him where he went to school and it turns out he studied over seas in Europe. I asked him how the classes were over there because I have thought about studying over seas. He said that the classes were one exam, no homework, and the exam was oral. You had three questions. If you missed on question you failed the class. If you fail a class, you fail for the entire year. So the pressure was on, but he passed with high marks. I envy him.

It must have been apparent that I was engaging heavily into the conversation because he then directed towards me. He asked me what I was studying, and where I wanted to go, and why I was studying that. I began to ramble off on how I thought about doing pharmacology but one, I don’t like pharmacokinetics because it’s boring as shit, and two, standing behind a counter from nine to five shelling out drugs to the elderly doesn’t seem like it’d be as much fun as I had thought. I then told him that I wanted to get into surgery. He asked me what field. I told him that I wasn’t sure but I’m thinking about doing orthopedics, being as the demand for them is high with the mass amount of older people we have, and that I feel there is a lesser chance of getting my ass sued for some dumbfuck getting upset that I caused him to go retarded. He laughed full heartedly at this.

I also told him that I would like to go to Seattle to finish up my undergraduate work, or stay here seeing how the science field at UCSB is stellar, and then transferring to Hopkin’s for their medical program if I can get in. He admired my high goals and I told him one of my favorite quotes:

“Shoot for a gold, and you may end with a silver, shoot for a silver, and you may end with a bronze, shoot for a bronze, well you might as well not compete.”

I then told him that I was afraid that my ethics and morals might diminish the further into my career I go. The majority of people tell me that I should be a doctor seeing how I am seemingly caring and passionate about people. He told me that more doctors need to be that way and how he is shocked that even in his field of study there were very few who were caring. We agreed that this is a person’s life in your hands, and they trust you. There needs to be a certain level of comfort so the patient is more willing.

I told him about a certain documentary that I had watched about genetics and gays being related. There has been, and still are, studies that in gay men, a certain part of the brain seems more swollen as opposed to heterosexual men. He told me that he wasn’t sure if he believed that, and it seemed more like a publicity move rather than a scientific one. I told him my fear of if this is true, people will stop it and start playing God.

We both agreed that in the common hands of society, the role of God should not be played. At least when it comes to choosing their sexuality. This is where the medical ethics started to come into play. We held a discussion on this sole topic for about half an hour and we both came to the same conclusion. He said that if both partners have a dominant gene of a horrible disease, and if there is a way to stop the child from having it, then yes, matters should be taken. But if the child is going to be homosexual or heterosexual, that is left for the child to choose. He also stated that it isn’t a fact that the child WILL be homosexual, but rather it just tells you the chances of it happening. I found it interesting and then brought up the topic of freezing eggs from women who are sterile.

Most women use three eggs. If the first egg is a success, what do you do with the other two? Do you keep them, which comes at a hefty price, or do you discard of them, or do you use them for research? It is difficult for many husbands and wives to come to a clear conclusion, and there is much controversy over it. Being in the science field himself, we both agreed that they should be used for medical research.

We finished up the conversation formally introducing ourselves to one another, and coming to the conclusion that the majority of people are stupid as fuck. He told me not to worry too much about medical ethics now, but it is something that I will have to face on a day to day basis once I start my career. It makes me want to think twice about my choice of professions.