Question

Subject: Health care ethics

You are a general practitioner and a mother comes into your office with her child who is complaining of flu-like symptoms. Upon entering the room, you ask the boy to remove his shirt and you notice a pattern of very distinct bruises on the boy's torso. You ask the mother where the bruises came from, and she tells you that they are from a procedure she performed on him known as "cao gio," which is also known as "coining." The procedure involves rubbing warm oils or gels on a person's skin with a coin or other flat metal object. The mother explains that cao gio is used to raise out bad blood, and improve circulation and healing. When you touch the boy's back with your stethoscope, he winces in pain from the bruises. You debate whether or not you should call Child Protective Services and report the mother.

Questions for Case B:

• Should we completely discount this treatment as useless, or could there be something gained from it?
• When should a physician step in to stop a cultural practice? (If someone answers "when it harms the child" remind that person that there is some pain in many of our medical procedures, for example, having one's tonsils removed)
• Should the physician be concerned about alienating the mother and other people of her ethnicity from modern medicine?
• Do you think that the physician should report the mother?

Answer 1

Answer: The treatment can be performed and the physician can treat the child as it is duty of the physician to treat his Patients.

Although it is considered to be a cultural practices and beliefs, these kind of acts is a abuse to the people as there are no scientific proof regarding the cultural medicines used.

Physician should educate the nurse that this kind of act and beliefs is a torture to the person and not every cultural treatment is good or used for the patient to treat as most of the problem and diseases can not be cured with the help of these methods.

The physician should not report the mother as because she didn't do this intentionally to harm his child. She was following her cultural treatment and wanted her child to be fine. Physician should teach and educate the mother about the proper treatment and avoiding this kind of act.