[QUOTE=Frylock]
I’m asking you why it is that the doctor in the riddle can’t operate on her own son.
Is it not because doing so would be unethical?
[/quote]
No It’s because it’s not done for all the other reasons listed above. But I thought we all knew THAT :smack:
It’s not an issue of ethics. It’s about practicality, safety, sociology, psychology, and a bunch of other things. Ethics is about right and wrong. It’s not wrong to operate on a family member. It’s just a Very Bad Idea.
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster]
No It’s because it’s not done for all the other reasons listed above. But I thought we all knew THAT :smack:
It’s not an issue of ethics. It’s about practicality, safety, sociology, psychology, and a bunch of other things. Ethics is about right and wrong. It’s not wrong to operate on a family member. It’s just a Very Bad Idea.
[/QUOTE]
The reasons you listed are many of the reasons why it is unethical. But it is unethical. It goes against the code of ethics adopted by the medical profession (at least in the West as far as I know).
The OP said “My girlfriend says its unethical. I don’t understand why.”
Respondants listed several reasons why it is unethical.
No one said “It’s not unethical, it’s just a bad idea” until your very last post. Until that post, everyone here has spoken in a way best concieved of as explaining to the OP why it is unethical.
Read back through the thread. The issue has been explicitly discussed as an “ethical” one throughout. You may take issue with that usage of the term, but the smack smiley you used was not licensed in this case.
-FrL-
[QUOTE=Frylock]
Read back through the thread. The issue has been explicitly discussed as an “ethical” one throughout.
[/QUOTE]
Not seeing that. The question was not ‘why is it unethical’ but rather
Posters have been answering that question.
[QUOTE=Quiddity Glomfuster]
Not seeing that. The question was not ‘why is it unethical’ but rather
Posters have been answering that question.
[/QUOTE]
The OP said “My sister says its unethical. I asked her why, and she didn’t have a good answer. So what’s the big deal about it?”
To interpret the phrase “What’s the big deal about X” we must ask ourselves, What’s what big deal about it? Clearly, in this case, the OP is talking about that big deal which constitutes it as unethical. The OP is asking why it is unethical.
Do a ctrl-F for “ethic” on this thread and you’ll see that posters have been addressing the question of why it is unethical.
This is beside the point anyway. You can replace “unethical” in what i said:
with the phrase “something it is understood that doctors should not do.” This preserves the point I am making in that post, namely, that the story told in the riddle in question can’t be understood unless we know that doctors generally do not take themselves to be allowed to practice on their own relatives.
Certainly, the person who brought up the riddle said he found it to be revelatory that it is, in his word, not “ethical” to practice on one’s own son, but in context its clear that he means by “ethical” here to refer to exactly the kinds of considerations that have been adduced in this thread as to why a doctor ought not to practice on her own son, namely, all those considerations you claim are other than ethical considerations.
You seem now to be claiming that your disagreement is with the use of the word “ethical” in that context. But this is not supported by the actual content of the post you offered in response to that person’s comment about the riddle. Your response to that post did not take that poster to task for using the term “ethical” improperly in any sense, but rather, seemed to be taking him to task for misunderstanding the point of the riddle in some way. It is that poster’s claim, and my claim, that the poster did not misunderstnand the point of the riddle, and that rather, you misunderstood his or her post yourself.
-FrL-