Disguised information.
The author heard an interesting idea on how to collect blood for medical usage. The idea is "to tell the patient's cousins to donate blood for the patient's usage before a surgery". The physician that proposed this idea mentioned that it was an effective method and sometimes receives plenty of donated blood The topics to be discussed on this blood bank practice based on clinical pathology ethics include: (1) This is a donation thus, is acceptable. However, it is a directed donation. The donor has to pay for the management cost to the blood bank. (2) This may be a lie to the patient's cousins. Often, the patients use placebo in medical research or therapy. Furthermore, medical research or therapy must follow scientific standards and ethical control. Obviously, asking for a donation in the quoted manner might be effective persuasion; however, some problems can be expected. Although the cousin donates blood, the blood might not match or the amount may exceed the real need of the patient. In addition, the donation might be done based on the implied physician's words, although the patient does not need blood transfusion. (3) Generally, an informed consent is necessary before doing any medical procedure. In this case, although it is not the case of a patient, it is of a cousin and the information is given. However, the information is problematic as there may be some disguised and incorrect content. Therefore, this is a lie in Buddhism, as it cannot be said that this is to help the patient. (4) Giving disguised or incomplete information should be avoided A physician should provide transparency and complete information. This can prevent possible problems and make the physician' listener continue to respect the physician's words.
Wiwanitkit
Viroj
V
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 10330, Thailand. wviroj@yahoo.com
D001771:Blood Banks / Q000941:ethics*; D001782:Blood Donors / Q000941:ethics*; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D005190:Family; D006801:Humans; D007258:Informed Consent