Healthy Case for Letting Doctors Judge Teens’ Best Interests

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Analysis
Evaluation
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

The article under consideration titled ‘Healthy case for letting doctors judge teens’ best interests’ by Wilkinson was published in National Times on November 16, 2008 online. The main idea of the article is to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the teen’s decisions in regard to their health care.

The author of the research asks a question, whether young patients should make decisions about their health care o0f parents should still control those decisions. The author’s point of view is strict, parents “should resist the trend to allow younger and younger patients control over medical decisions.

Paternalism still has a place in medicine” (Wilkinson 2008, n.p.). However, the arguments which are presented in the article allow me to disagree with the author’s point of view and state that the decisions of the teenagers are to be just controlled and impacted, however, parents and doctors should not make teenagers do what they do not want to.

The role of parents and doctors in the youths’ decision should be in informing teenagers about the consequences of their decisions be means of drawing the future outcome from the medical perspective, trying to apply to the patients’ reasoning and the understanding of the outcome.

Analysis

Providing the arguments in the essay, the author referred to the examples which, in his point of view, helped him conclude that paternalism is the only aspect which is to be used in the healthcare.

The argument is rather contradicting as the examples, vice versa, help make conclusions that teenagers are to me directed in their decisions in case relatives and medical workers believe that their decision is wrong.

There is no need to make teenagers perform what their parents are to do as this is they are to live with those decisions, they are to perceive the consequences of the treatment. The author of article has selected good examples and informative points of views. The cases discussed in the article are really valuable as they help to conclude that teenagers should make decisions themselves.

The author states that paternalism should be the basis in the healthy care treatment of teenagers, however, he refers to the example of the 13-year-old Hannah Jones who refused a heart transplant. The situation when Hannah Jones refused from a heart transplant is as follows. A 13-year-old Hannah Jones was predicted to live several months. With a heart transplant the chances could increase to a couple of years, not more.

The situation cannot be connected with the examples when people live for 10 years with heart transplants. Hannah Jones had leukemia in young childhood. According to the author’s argument parents had to insist and make an operation. What would come next? Is Hannah Jones ready to lead the life she does not want to? Is she ready to forgive her parents for enlarging her suffering for several years? This is not their decisions how long she is to wait for death. Thus, the author’s conclusion seems rather strange.

The article contains other examples which may serve either as supportive or contradicting arguments for the author’s conclusion. The argument is deductively valid, however, the main idea of the conclusion is not what the author is presupposed to conclude. Reading the examples the author provides, it becomes obvious that the main stress the author made when drew a conclusion was plastic surgery and the increased number of teenagers who want to make such an operation.

The main flow of ideas of the author is obvious as well. However, even the cases of the teenagers’ desire to apply to liposuction, breast enlargements and tummy tucks cannot be the reason for paternalism. Drawing a conclusion in the favor of paternalism the author does not pay attention to many factors which impact the life of teenagers in the modern world. The society has become different than it was and the cruel world of teenager should not be underestimated.

The author just considers the medical aspect of the problem. However, other factors which in many cases push teenagers for operation are not considered at all. Therefore, the arguments are not full and the conclusion the author draws may not be taken for granted. Too many aspects and are not included.

The author failed to include the arguments offered by the teenagers which are really important. The author failed to include the opinion of the psychologists and those who are either for or against of paternalism. Therefore, it may be stated that the arguments presented in the article are not full, and the conclusions drawn by the author should not be trusted due to the absence of the absence of the comprehensive evaluation of the situation.

Evaluation

Evaluating the conclusion the author has drawn as the result of the discussion of the examples, it should be stated that applying to the deductive method the author offers some reasons which cannot be called supportive for the final conclusion. Some arguments cannot be referred to as they point at absolutely different conclusions from what the author states. A step by step analysis of the arguments offered by the author may help understand the failure or shortage of the author’s conclusions.

The first example the author offers has already been discussed. The decision of the 13-year-old Hannah Jones to refused a heart transplant cannot be considered as the supportive argument to paternalism in medicine. The example is not considered from all angles, the feelings of a dying teenager are not considered who may feel many difficulties in the further several years.

Adults are stronger and can live with the diagnosis and the predicted day of death better. Children and teenagers are unable to lead normal life without suffering. The author uses the information without thorough analysis that leads to failure to draw the correct conclusions.

The next example is the publication in the Journal of Adolescent Health of the article which discusses the rising popularity of plastic surgery for teenagers in the USA. However, stressing the complications in the future and the absence of the guarantees that the operation is going to have the same result in the future are not the arguments which are to be considered.

The author had to conduct a deeper research and to make sure l the aspects of the problem are considered. Applying to the article the author just states the main idea of the research – the increase of the cases of liposuction, breast enlargements and tummy tucks, however, the author leaves without attention the reasons of such decisions.

The reasons are really important as in this case the availability of the operations is not the only aspect which is to be discussed. The social aspect is to be considered. Teenagers are impacted by many reasons and in most cases the operations are really important. The mockery from the sire of the classmates and other similar aspects may serve as the reasons for breakdowns which may lead to more serious consequences in the future than the inability to save the forms which have been created in youth.

Therefore, applying to these two examples as the basis for the author’s arguments in favor of his point of view the author failed to reach the set aim. The wrong choice of the thinking method leads to the failure to present the discussion which might be considered as the main disadvantage and the fatal mistake of the author who failed to create the argumentative discussion. The arguments are strong, however, they do not support the main idea of the article and do not lead the author to the conclusion he draws.

It does not mean that the conclusion drawn by the author does not have the supportive arguments. There are a lot of medical cases when the doctor’s insistence and the parental decision in contempt of the teenager’s desire saved life to the latter and did not have any complications in the future with the positive reaction of a teenager with the words of gratitude.

The author’s point of view should not be considered as incorrect, vice versa, it should be developed and the appropriate arguments are to be used, the inductive method is to be implemented. However, in this case, the author failed to apply to the appropriate arguments which could support the author’s point of view.

It seems that he author have created the point of view and he just searched for the examples which could support his point of view. Therefore, the main failure of the author is the application to the inductive method of thinking but presenting it as the deductive one in the article.

Conclusion

Therefore, it may be concluded that the argument could be called a successful one in case the author referred to all possible aspects in the affair. Offering the examples, trying to evaluate the situation and doing all possible to create a strong argument the author failed to discuss the situation from all angles. However, the flow of the discussion is logical and I could have even agreed with the author if I accepted his flow of thoughts.

However, my vision of the situation is absolutely different. Moreover, the arguments the author offered as the supporting for his conclusion do not really help draw the same idea and in some cases they may be even considered as contradicting to the authors conclusion. The thesis the author refers to cannot be supported with all the examples in the article, however, the author posts them as the supportive ones, which cannot serve as those.

Therefore, the article is rather inspiring for further research in the sphere. The thesis that teens should not be allowed to make personal decisions in a health care is rather contradicting and arguable. It is important to conduct a qualitative research in the sphere with the literature review of the sources which pointed at the similar problem as the discussion in this article cannot be called successful du to the absence of the reasonable arguments which support the conclusion drawn by the author.

Reference List

Wilkinson, D 2008, ‘Healthy case for letting doctors judge teens’ best interests’, National Times. Web.

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