What is equality? Whom should we base the standard on? Can we justly apply the same standards of justice when there are different expectations of life? Do human beings have an ultimate right to know the truth when it comes to their health? According to the rights ethics, “an individual has a right not to be intentionally deceived by another, especially on matters about which the individual has the right to know” But who decides what those “matters” are? And what happens when the good of a whole community comes into question? Which should take president, the rights of the individual or the good of the community?
In Trinidad and Tobago a non-profit American organization opened a clinic to service members of a poor community with modern treatments for surgical ailments of underdeveloped nations. A fragile woman came in to get a routine cataracts operation. She was visibly shaken and seemed suspicious of the modern equipment and sterile environment. Because of this the woman was reassured in Spanish by the attending surgeon that this operation was painless and would be over quickly. Two nurses checked the medicine which was supposed to be “lidocaine,” a topical anesthesia. The Lidocaine was then given to the surgeon for
a third inspection. After confirming that it was lidocaine, the surgeon plunged a full needle into the patients tear duct. The woman screamed in pain, her body jerking against the nurses hands which had to constrain her bucking, willow thin frame. The bottle had been mislabeled, it in fact held formaldehyde, commonly used as embalming fluid. The liquid destroyed her good eye and left her blind. Crying out in agony she moaned, “why is the serpent causing me so much pain?” (The serpent being the devil) This “serpent”, in the form of human error robbed an innocent woman of her sight.
The people of Trinidad and Tobago are by nature suspicious of western medicine. The doctors worked tirelessly to cure patient after patient, slowly laying the building blocks to earn the trust of the natives. Most of whom were uneducated and poor. Finding out that the doctors had accidentally harmed a patient instead of cured her would have been almost impossible to explain. The communities trust would be shattered and the doctors severely reprimanded for their mistake. The hard work of the nurses and staff would be wasted and this poor country would continue to suffer from every day surgical ailments that could readily be resolved with this modern health care clinic. Consequently the staff weighed out their options carefull
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