Ethical question

[jojoluvsu2]

Hey All

 

A friend of the family is in her second or third year (at McMaster, I think). I found out the other day from my parents that she did a placement in India last summer. Basically the conversation revolved around how cool it was to do a placement there because of all the things she got to do that she wouldn't have been able to do in Canada at this point in her education (1st assist in surgeries being the most obvious). I understand that what she was doing was not outside of what is available to Indian med students. However, it still left a bad taste in my mouth that she essentially went there and got to (experiment is too negative a term, but that's the word that came to mind).

 

On the one hand, she got valuable experience and was able to provide some help to a very remote area where medical aid is not readily available.

 

On the other, she got to do things to human beings that wouldn't be considered ethical in the Canadian medical arena.

 

Thoughts??

[thehumanmacbook]

http://premed101.com/forums/showthread.php?t=57132&highlight=volunteering+abroad

 

I think if you said that you performed surgery in a 3rd world environment and discussed it in an medical interview, you would have definitely not demonstrated ethical reasoning or behaviour.

[NLengr]

Is missus in med school?

 

If so first assisting is not completely unheard of for medical students in Canada, especially if you are at a community hospital. The reason many med students don't getto do it is because they are below fellows and residents on the totem pole. That and most staff like a first assist who has some idea of how to do the surgery so that the case goes quicker. I can tell you I was first assist on quite a few surgeries (generally simple stuff), when I was a med student.

 

I wouldn't see a problem with it.