Ethical Analysis About Treatment In Diaster Medicine

The paper discusses the particularities, the interpersonal relationships in disaster medical treatment, and hence the ethical conflicts about emergent treatment in disaster medicine under the serious situations of the worldwide disaster problems. Ethical analysis has been carried on in the paper for the ethical questions about emergent treatment in disaster medicine to present some principles and patterns of medical morals. It is elucidated in the paper that treatment in disaster medicine is a systematically complex social project, compared with ordinary medical practice. The interpersonal relationships in disaster medical treatment not only include the usual physician-patient relationship, and the physician-physician relationship but also extend to patient-patient relationship with broader, more complex time-space boundaries and a personnel range. The inevitable ethical conflicts about emergent treatment in disaster medicine are also discussed: equal right to treatment enjoyed by everyone vs. priority for those who need more urgent treatment; humanity principle vs. relinquishment of invalid treatment; informed consent principle vs. first aid; life rescue vs. quality of life improvement during treatment. The second part analyzes the ethical conflicts about disaster medicine treatment in three aspects: responsibility and obligation, efficacy and justice, quality of life and value of life. It is considered that to provide disaster relief is humane duty of human society. Government and its corresponding departments assume the leading responsibilities to provide disaster relief. To help each other is the magnanimous act undertaken by the victims of natural calamities. The armed forces are the main force to provide disaster relief. Medical workers must carry forward selflessly consecrate humanitarianism spirit to rescue lives and decrease the number of the disabled to restore normal social environment and human health by giving expression to the national policy on salvation and remedy in disaster medicine salvation. The unity of high efficacy and justice should be guaranteed to give consideration to both quality and value of life under the principle of life first. The last part comes to the medical moral principles and patterns in disaster medical treatment. On the basis of above analysis and research, we put forward the fundamental principles for medical staff: to adhere to public welfare policy and gratis treatment; to gain the most healthy efficacy; to adapt to particular environment; to strengthen the sense of both organization and co-ordination. The medical staff should follow the medical moral patterns: to keep to the concept of all-time preparation to get well prepared for the unforeseen disasters; to be bold enough to assume responsibility; to work in unity and close cooperation; to watch on the disciplines by obeying orders in all the activities; to be practical, realistic, scientific and rigorous. The characteristics such as urgency, difficulty, danger and formidable and the relatively exhausted medical resources for first aid in disaster medical treatment should be fully understood by various circles of the society. A medically ethical principle of severity tempered with gentleness is suggested in the paper to provide medical staff with a more practicable and relatively not so stringent professional environment, in which they can exert their enthusiasm and creativeness to make their contributions to the treatment efficacy and to disaster medicine.