ethical qs for interviews

[Piyush]

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Some interviews ask ethical questions, usually the abortion and assisted suicide questions are common. I read earlier on SDN's interview help pages that the interviewers are looking for consistancy when answering different ethical questions. When I wanted to answer these questions, I believe that people should have the choice to opt for abortion, however, they should not be allowed to choose DNR or assisted suicide. Unfortunately, this does not seem to work with the advice that SDN had cause I am pro-choice on the adoption issue and certaintly not so with the assisted suicide issue. I believe that because I prefer to save established life over unestablished life. That is, let the mothers decide if they need adoption to prevent distroying their lives at the cost of a fetus, because they have an established life. Similarly, a person choosing to kill himself should not be allowed to do so becaue he/she has an established life, no matter how bad it might be. So, I believe is choosing an existing life, over an expected life, allowing raped/underaged/incapable mothers to choose abortion, but denying a mentally/emotionally disturbed or terminal patient the option of physician assisted suicide...

Is such an explanation going to kill me in an interview? Anyone else have any other ways they answer these questions? I know to add the patient education, legal overview, etc parts of the questions, but just want to be able to backup my personal beliefs with a reasoning that I have.

Cheers
Piyush

 

[ucsdhibiscus]

Med schools are looking for YOUR answers and a reason to back it up.
Ethical questions do not come up too often and you don't have to sit there for an hour and back your story up. I've only talked about physician assisted suicide once and it was about a 3 min discussion about where it is legal and a quick tidbit about what I feel about it.
Don't worry so much about this particular situation. MOST interviews are laid back and conversational so just be prepared to talk about your AMCAS and your motivation for becoming a doctor.

 

[Jolie South]

i went on many interviews and never was asked an ethical question.

i guess i would say to know what's legal, know your stand on the issue, and be able to back it up, just in case.

 

[Piyush]

I am an AMC interview-YAY-, and they are BIG on medical ethics and from the interview feedback on SDN, they do ask ethical questions in detail in their interviews.

Thanks for the feedback, and anyone else feel free to add/comment.

Piyush.

 

[TheMemoirist]

OP: I've always had the impression that no one really cares what your personal stance is (unless it is really extreme). Ethical questions are asked less to find out how you feel about something, and more to find out why you feel about something.

IMO, as long as you can give a good explanation and demonstrate that you understand the ethical implications related to the issue at hand, then you're golden. From reading the original post, it sounds to me like your answer is fine. You explain what you think, and then explain why you feel that way in very rational terms. I seriously doubt that any interviewer would take issue with your response.

 

[Jolie South]

OP: I've always had the impression that no one really cares what your personal stance is (unless it is really extreme). Ethical questions are asked less to find out how you feel about something, and more to find out why you feel about something.

IMO, as long as you can give a good explanation and demonstrate that you understand the ethical implications related to the issue at hand, then you're golden. From reading the original post, it sounds to me like your answer is fine. You explain what you think, and then explain why you feel that way in very rational terms. I seriously doubt that any interviewer would take issue with your response.

that's where i was trying to go with my response. well said.

 

[GoBuckeyes913]

I believe that people should have the choice to opt for abortion, however, they should not be allowed to choose DNR or assisted suicide. I believe that because I prefer to save established life over unestablished life. That is, let the mothers decide if they need adoption to prevent distroying their lives at the cost of a fetus, because they have an established life.

Just answer these questions by how you feel, not how you think they want you to answer and you will be fine. However, when reading your entire comment I'm not even really sure where you are going with your opinion. Once you get to your clinical rotations in med school your views will definitely change, particularly on the DNR thing...... i.e. seeing a patient in the MICU whose family refuses to make them DNR-CCO when they are clearly never going to get better (and actually get worse) will irritate the crap out of you.

Similarly, a person choosing to kill himself should not be allowed to do so becaue he/she has an established life, no matter how bad it might be. So, I believe is choosing an existing life, over an expected life, allowing raped/underaged/incapable mothers to choose abortion, but denying a mentally/emotionally disturbed or terminal patient the option of physician assisted suicide...

Last time I checked, suicide is illegal. So, it sounds like you are just stating the obvious in your response, which I would pick up on as an interviewer. Oh yea, and don't ever support PAS (at least that is what I am getting from your post, it just sounds bad). I know this contradicts what I said in the beginning of just answering how you feel. If people want to die that bad, they will find a way to do it themselves. Sometimes in certain situations though (think hospice patients) it ends up happening anyways when you put a metastatic cancer patient on so many pain meds to keep them comfortable....you're not really sure if their cancer kills them, or if their respiratory center is so depressed from the meds that its what seals the deal.

 

[nevercold]

Physician assisted suicide is legal in Oregon with stipulations regarding persistence of the desire, independent evaluation, and classification of your prognosis/disease.

Never treat an interview like a multiple choice/fill-in-the-blank quiz. You are not there to get questions right. You are there to demonstrate who you are and how you think.

 

[LikeClockWork]

I feel like your answer is consistent since it follows a logical path of reasoning. They just don't want you to say you're pro one thing and con another, but have no justification for it. They ask ethical questions to see if you have a thought out opinions and a good head on your shoulders, of which it seems you have both.

 

[dd128]

i went on many interviews and never was asked an ethical question.

i guess i would say to know what's legal, know your stand on the issue, and be able to back it up, just in case.

Same here, though I did get some roundabout questions that ended up leading to my views on healthcare. Right or privilege?

If you were asked, I'm sure they'd just want to see that you are informed on the subject and have a moderate level of understanding. I doubt a school would reject you because you are prochoice or life

 

[Jolie South]

i lied. i was asked once to name one thing wrong with healthcare in the US.

there are many glaring problems that aren't controversial, so i just named one and briefly said how i would fix it.

 

[KeyzerSoze]

Some interviews ask ethical questions, usually the abortion and assisted suicide questions are common. I read earlier on SDN's interview help pages that the interviewers are looking for consistancy when answering different ethical questions. When I wanted to answer these questions, I believe that people should have the choice to opt for abortion, however, they should not be allowed to choose DNR or assisted suicide. Unfortunately, this does not seem to work with the advice that SDN had cause I am pro-choice on the adoption issue and certaintly not so with the assisted suicide issue. I believe that because I prefer to save established life over unestablished life. That is, let the mothers decide if they need adoption to prevent distroying their lives at the cost of a fetus, because they have an established life. Similarly, a person choosing to kill himself should not be allowed to do so becaue he/she has an established life, no matter how bad it might be. So, I believe is choosing an existing life, over an expected life, allowing raped/underaged/incapable mothers to choose abortion, but denying a mentally/emotionally disturbed or terminal patient the option of physician assisted suicide...

Is such an explanation going to kill me in an interview? Anyone else have any other ways they answer these questions? I know to add the patient education, legal overview, etc parts of the questions, but just want to be able to backup my personal beliefs with a reasoning that I have.

Cheers
Piyush

That sounds pretty good in general, but you might want to learn more about DNR orders and the circumstances in which they are used. If you are going to lump them together with assisted suicide, you should be prepared to explain why.

 

[dienekes88]

Just keep thinking about it. Demonstrate that you not only understand the ethical implications of each action but can also examine the subtleties and gradations within an issue.

1st trimester abortion vs. 2nd trimester vs. 3rd trimester vs. partial-birth abortion.

Terminal cancer patient with less than 6-months to live vs. HIV positive individual, who altruistically doesn't want to expose the surgical team to his blood for a re-op on an infected mitral valve.

There are greater questions about patient autonomy within these questions. Should a person with a 50% chance of living if given treatment be allowed to refuse it?

By the way... nobody asked me anything about ethics. Most people asked me what the heck pastry had to do with medicine. My answer: EVERYTHING.