Re-humanizing Medical Treatment

By: Naomi Sharman

Observation, the long-standing basis of science, seems to be taking a backseat in today's medical community -- a change that is harming patients.

I was misdiagnosed in one of the best
hospitals in the country

I came home from a Christian proselyting mission to the East Coast when I could no longer walk well and had a collection of other severe symptoms.

I thought I was dying.

Before I came home, I was hospitalized in a Johns Hopkins satellite hospital. I was tested for multiple sclerosis, a brain tumor, and Lyme disease. After ruling out multiple sclerosis with the final MRI, the doctor started talking to me as if I were a kindergartner: "Can you come in for bi-weekly visits with a psychiatrist?" I could tell from her tone of voice that she wondered if a nut-job would know the meaning of bi-weekly.

Hot Spots in Medicine

Hot Spots in Medicine:

• Use of CRISPR gene editing on embryos

                Recently a Chinese scientist was the first to use CRISPR gene editing on a human embryo that went on to be born. He altered the genome of twin girls and replanted them in the mother and they were just born. The change he made caused the girls to be resistant to HIV. The change also may have increased their intelligence as well as their susceptibility to other diseases. The ethics of this are deep and very human. Should we use the technologies we have to alter creation itself? I think to a certain extent this is ok, but it could very easily get out of hand. That makes drawing any kind of line very difficult which is why I would lean towards not genetically altering human embryos at all.

• Ethics of euthanasia 

                The debate about whether doctor-facilitated suicide should be allowed has gone on for quite some time, but there is still heat there. Questions surround whether the patient is healthy otherwise, wishes of family members, costs of alternative treatments, and more. To me, I think people have the right to refuse treatment, especially if the closest family members are ok with it. Prolonging life against someone's will sounds like torture. I am more on the fence about whether doctors should actually administer euthanasia or just allow the disease to progress. Being between taking a life and prolonging pain is like being between a rock and a hard place.

• Child vaccination 

              This is a topic that I definitely have a strong opinion on. All hard evidence shows the benefits of vaccination. Parents who refuse to vaccinate their children are putting their children and others around them at high risk of serious, even deadly, diseases. Should that be enforced? What about those who refuse for religious reasons? These are questions that test me further.

Gene editing is the most worrying to me. This new technology has the potential to completely rewrite the face of science and of humanity. Even the "happy" ending to this is unappealing to me. Genetically perfect individuals walking around among those too poor to afford edits sounds like something out of a nightmarish movie. In addition, we have found viruses and bacteria resistant to every antibiotic we throw at them, so I am sure there will be bugs that adapt to even the perfected individuals. This science is dangerous and unnecessary.