Ethical question

[Moe Lester]

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Question: As a dentist, you have room (money, time, etc.) to provide dental care to ONE patient for FREE. There are two patients (A and B) in your practice that need your help before the Christmas break. Who would you provide the dental care to?

This is how much you know about the two from their family paper work:

Patient A_ Latino, married, father, owns a restaurant
Patient B_ Asian, married, father, blue collar worker

Both came at the same time and need the same dental service, pretty much everything else is the same as well.

 

[Ranelar]

If I truly care about both people and am trying to decide who to give free service to, I would do both. There's really no such thing as not enough time/money in this situation. If it's pure charity for strangers, then that would require a different answer. In this case, you state that they are my patients, so I probably have some kind of relationship with them, particularly if I am considering offering free treatment.

 

[Epictetus21]

Question: As a dentist, you have room (money, time, etc.) to provide dental care to ONE patient for FREE. There are two patients (A and B) in your practice that need your help before the Christmas break. Who would you provide the dental care to?

This is how much you know about the two from their family paper work:

Patient A_ Latino, married, father, owns a restaurant
Patient B_ Asian, married, father, blue collar worker

Both came at the same time and need the same dental service, pretty much everything else is the same as well.

Since the only differences are their race and occupations, I would toss a coin. There really isn't a right or wrong way to decide this one since neither one seems to be in greater need or more deserving. If I knew more about their financial situation or family background then I could make a judgement call.

 

[doc toothache]

It doesn't sound like either of your make believe patients are in need of free dental care.

 

[Locutus of Borg]

Question: As a dentist, you have room (money, time, etc.) to provide dental care to ONE patient for FREE. There are two patients (A and B) in your practice that need your help before the Christmas break. Who would you provide the dental care to?

This is how much you know about the two from their family paper work:

Patient A_ Latino, married, father, owns a restaurant
Patient B_ Asian, married, father, blue collar worker

Both came at the same time and need the same dental service, pretty much everything else is the same as well.

Maybe I'm picturing this incorrectly, but isn't the restaurant owner more capable of paying for whatever dental car he/she needs than the blue collar patient?

 

[tinman831]

It's more of a personal judgement call than anything else. You could give away your services to a millionaire. Purely your choice as to how you want to proceed. We don't have enough information about your patients to make a decision.

 

[Moe Lester]

So as a dentist you will not give preferential treatment to certain minority races, enough though you earned a doctoral degree from an institution that does?

 

[dentstd]

Question: As a dentist, you have room (money, time, etc.) to provide dental care to ONE patient for FREE. There are two patients (A and B) in your practice that need your help before the Christmas break. Who would you provide the dental care to?

This is how much you know about the two from their family paper work:

Patient A_ Latino, married, father, owns a restaurant
Patient B_ Asian, married, father, blue collar worker

Both came at the same time and need the same dental service, pretty much everything else is the same as well.

I don't see how this is an ethical question, particularly in reference to free services. You'll always have time to give free services, but I don't see why I should in this particular case.

Treat one. Treat both. I'd charge them both.

 

[Ranelar]

So as a dentist you will not give preferential treatment to certain minority races, enough though you earned a doctoral degree from an institution that does?

Muahaha, so this is an ill conceived affirmative action troll thread? I was waiting for the trollish punchline, since it came from you Moe 😛

 

[dentstd]

Muahaha, so this is an ill conceived affirmative action troll thread? I was waiting for the trollish punchline, since it came from you Moe 😛

affirmative action? you're not accepting a patient to your clinic.

 

[iwannabadentist]

Question: As a dentist, you have room (money, time, etc.) to provide dental care to ONE patient for FREE. There are two patients (A and B) in your practice that need your help before the Christmas break. Who would you provide the dental care to?

This is how much you know about the two from their family paper work:

Patient A_ Latino, married, father, owns a restaurant
Patient B_ Asian, married, father, blue collar worker

Both came at the same time and need the same dental service, pretty much everything else is the same as well.

i would refer them both to a free clinic and enjoy my christmas 😎

 

[tinman831]

So as a dentist you will not give preferential treatment to certain minority races, enough though you earned a doctoral degree from an institution that does?

Where did ethnicity ever come into the equation? You treat every patient as a human being, you don't treat them based on the color of their skin.

 

[Moe Lester]

I used to be very "color" blind until now.

I got the boot for being a majority from a school but this was not the case with my minority friend who had substantially lower stats than me, I knew the guy for four years in college so I know a lot about him.

So now I feel like I have been racially discriminated and needless to say I'm not so color blind anymore. That is why I asked the question, my path to becoming someone who treats and heals others is slowly turning me into this evil person.

 

[Ranelar]

affirmative action? you're not accepting a patient to your clinic.

Why am I "not accepting a patient" to my clinic?

I used to be very “color” blind until now.

I got the boot for being a majority from a school but this was not the case with my minority friend who had substantially lower stats than me, I knew the guy for four years in college so I know a lot about him.

So now I feel like I have been racially discriminated and needless to say I’m not so color blind anymore. That is why I asked the question, my path to becoming someone who treats and heals others is slowly turning me into this evil person.

I'm Asian/White (Read: "majority"), and I probably have substantially lower stats than hundreds of people who were rejected from the schools I was accepted to. So how does that fit into your hypothesis?

 

[Moe Lester]

Why am I "not accepting a patient" to my clinic?



I'm Asian/White (Read: "majority"), and I probably have substantially lower stats than hundreds of people who were rejected from the schools I was accepted to. So how does that fit into your hypothesis?

The amount of time you spend doing your EC activities, he spent that time drinking. When I said, I knew the guy I didn't mean that I just know him as a classmate.

I was unaware how strong this racial preference is until I started applying for dental schools and did some research on it. You really cannot feel for others until you are put in their shoes and I’m having a very had time letting this go.

 

[doc toothache]

The amount of time you spend doing your EC activities, he spent that time drinking. When I said, I knew the guy I didn't mean that I just know him as a classmate.

I was unaware how strong this racial preference is until I started applying for dental schools and did some research on it. You really cannot feel for others until you are put in their shoes and I’m having a very had time letting this go.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=563953