Essay tips...."Should doctors be allowed to deny medical treatment on medical grounds"?

Question

i have to write an essay to get into med school, I'm only aloud 30 mins to do it and am aloud only to fill one side of A4 paper. the question is "Should doctors be allowed to deny medical treatment on medical grounds"(Give specific examples to support your arguments)

I quote from the information I've been given : "The purpose of the essay is to demonstrate your ability to structure information in a logical way. There is no right or wrong answer and it is not about how much you know about the topic. You are only permitted to use one side of a single sheet of A4 paper for this exercise."

SO IF ANYONE HAS ANY TIPS ON THE ON ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE ISSUE OR ON SHORT ESSAY WRITING IN GENERAL COULD YOU PLEAAASE PLEAASE HELP ME . essay writing has never been one of my strong points. the kind of stuff i have probs with is stuff like how to begin the essay and how to organise my ideas and what sort of vocabulary to use. if anyone has useful websites for this sort of thing, that would be useful also. thanks all!

Answer 1

Every medical treatment entails a judgment call. Is the treatment going to help the patient or not?. Medical grounds that could be used to deny treatment include obvious contraindications. The PDR (Physicians desk reference) lists contraindications for every drug. If you prescribe a drug contraindicated in a given patient you are not only subject to medical malpractice but you could harm or kill the patient in the process. The first rule doctors follow is "Do not do harm". Doctors are allowed to withold treatment that could be harmful.

Good luck on your essay!

Answer 2

First, let's get this out of the way: if you use "aloud" when you mean "allowed," you're sunk. Be very careful with your language, and don't rely only on the computer's spell-check program.

Denying medical treatment on medical grounds is a slam-dunk. Of course that's part of normal practice. If your patient demands a treatment that's not useful and has a high likelihood of causing harm, you're morally obligated not to comply, even if it means pissing off the patient and losing the business. You can't put it in exactly those terms, of course, but there's your idea from which to work.

Answer 3

I would think that "medical grounds" should clearly and unequivocally be the *primary* consideration for indicating or contra-indicating any medical treatment!  Isn't that what the medial training is for?  For instance, the drugs used to treat toenail fungus are especially hard on the liver.  Even though you are suffering from a horrible case of nail fungus, you should hope that the doctor knows enough to withhold treatment if your liver function is already badly compromised.  One would think that doctors should have some kind of motto to follow, that would first compel them to avoid doing more damage than they fix!