Prescription drugs can only be supplied lawfully by pharmacies. However, there is an increasing concern over the increased sale of prescription drugs on social media platforms. Based on utilitarianism and Kantian ideology, healthcare professionals should create awareness of the negative impacts of patients reselling their prescription drugs. Care based ethics focuses on maintaining relationships, responsibilities, and wellbeing of patients. The essay explores an ethical dilemma of handling a patient who resells her prescribed medication to the public while drawing from utilitarian, Kantian deontology, and care-based theories.
Dr. Grace Rowlands was concerned after noticing a Facebook page where members sold prescription drugs like oxycodone and diazepam. She was drawn to one member who had repeatedly sold oxycodone on the Facebook page for some years. Dr. Grace checked her patients’ notes and noticed that she had a patient who had repeatedly received oxycodone for some years. While it was not clear whether her patient was responsible for reselling the drug, one of the doctors confirmed that the patients’ boyfriend had liked the page. Dr. Grace contacted the medical decision unit’s adviser on whether she should report the matter to the police. It was after realizing that the suspected patient constantly attended his medical reviews and had never asked for the replacement of his prescriptions. However, there was no evidence to prove that she was not using his medication has she as required to. Dr. Grace requested to meet the patient who denied selling the prescribed drugs. Nevertheless, when he was asked about the boyfriend’s endorsement in the advertisements, she admitted to having sold her medication. Further probe revealed that she even sold the drugs to children. Dr. Grace was in a dilemma on whether to disclose this issue as a matter of public interest. On the other hand, failure to make a disclosure exposed the public to harm. Dr. Grace was in a dilemma on whether disclosure might assist in the detection, prevention, or prosecution of individuals selling prescribed drugs illegally.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
The ethics of care is based on feminist ethics that challenges the philosophical foundation of justice theory. Care focuses on the association of people and communicative actions to facilitate the development of physical, personal, moral, and psychological integrity (Green, 2012). In this case scenario, Dr. Grace informed the patient that if she continued selling the drugs, she would be forced to inform the police. The patient said that she had stopped the illegal sale of her medication online. Dr. Grace consulted with other physicians and made plans to reduce her dosage and frequency of collection and adjust the prescription. Moreover, she warned the patient that her behavior had negative effects on their relationship. Caring in the health care industry refers to a relationship between people, and it provides a foundation for concern, compassion, and obligation (Green, 2012). In this case, Dr. Grace should inform the patient of the legal and moral implications of reselling prescription drugs. It is the right of the patient to receive quality healthcare. Therefore, despite reselling her drugs, the doctor explores other ways of ensuring that the patient receives her medication while ensuring that she does not have a chance of reselling them. The solution is only practicable if the patient is not allowed to carry medication to her home. While the doctor might persuade her against reselling the drugs, she does not have control over the patients’ behavior in the community.
During the conversation with the client, the doctor recorded the discussion using a smart voice recorder, including her confession, clinical management plan, and decisions. The decision to record the conversation is based on the moral obligation of ensuring that the actions of the patient do not endanger the life of others. According to utilitarianism, we should pursue actions that increase happiness in the world (Rachels, 2019). The theory further advocates for punishment as a means of deterring crime and improving safety in societies. Likewise, Kant asserts that human beings are valuable and irreplaceable (Rachels, 2019). Therefore, if someone dies, the event remains tragic to the family. The doctor decides to ensure that the patient does not endanger the lives of other people in society by reselling his medication. Although the patient desires to fulfill her financial desires by reselling her drugs, such desire does not have value, and she should be prevented from engaging in such actions.
Moral values are guidelines that enhance the development of individuals and are reflected through attitude, personality, and behavior. In contemporary society, technology highly influences the perceptions and behavior of people in society. Therefore, medical organizations can use technologies like blogs and social media to create awareness on the legal, moral, and health impacts of purchasing drugs from unauthorized sellers. Ethics and morals are part of life and should be incorporated in all aspects of human interactions (Chowdhury, 2016). According to Kantian ideologies, the moral obligation does not depend on particular desires, but instead, they are categorical. Therefore, you should help people, regardless of their desires (Rachels, 2019). The doctor should create awareness on the detriments of purchasing medicine from unauthorized sellers to enhance the wellbeing of people.
The ethics of care advocate for morality in all actions to maintain healthy interpersonal relationships. Doctors witness situations where patients resell prescribed drugs on online platforms. Therefore, based on utilitarianism, Kantian deontology, and care-based ethics, doctors should create awareness on the negative impacts of prescription drugs reselling through blogs and social media.
References
Chowdhury, M. (2016). Emphasizing morals, values, ethics, and character education in science education and science teaching. The Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Science, 4(2),
Green, B. (2012) Applying feminist ethics of care to nursing practice. Journal of Nursing Care 1(111). doi:10.4172/2167-1168.1000111
Rachels, J. (2019). The Elements of moral philosophy. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education
