Comments on: South Korean scientist caught faking research

By: Efren

Efren — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:54:20 +0000

You’d be surprised–a lot of patients don’t want to know that they’re dying or why they’re sick, regardless of their ethnicity. I think that these patients feel that if they don’t know, there’s a glimmer of hope that they can get better due to their religious beliefs/miracles/etc, or at least that’s what they claim.

I remember reading that some people feel that their health is really out of their control anyway, and want to let nature run its course, even when their clinicians are doing everything they can to keep them alive, which is another reason why they don’t ask.

By: Efren

Efren — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:54:00 +0000

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:14:05 +0000

Efren, you bring up some interesting points…but I’m wonder….How does a patient *not* ask his physician why he’s dying? Or why he’s sick? Do some patients not even bother asking? In that case, I can see why a physician can be *ok* ethically not to tell the patient his or her diagnosis.

By: jennifer

jennifer — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:14:00 +0000

By: Efren

Efren — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:20:44 +0000

Your comments on the inconsistencies regarding telling patients’ relatives about their diagnoses is very similar to research that I was doing in medical sociology (before I left the program) on disclosure, though this was done in American hospitals and primarily concerned how to tell (or not to tell) a patient that s/he has a terminal diagnosis while telling the relatives. The practice technically doesn’t break any HIPAA rules as long as the patient doesn’t ask (which is paramount), but its practice does have an obvious emotional/mental cost on the doctor and the patient’s relatives, and the studies discuss a linear trajectory that shows how both patient and family/provider come to a consensus about the patient’s diagnosis and imminent death.

On a tangent, my studies were more on the emotional costs of gay Filipino American men and coming out, and I was arguing that disclosure doesn’t come in a one-way linear fashion, but often goes back and forth as people deal with coming to grips of disclosing secrets that could cause social death (such as coming out) or actual physical death (like terminal diagnoses).

By: Efren

Efren — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:20:00 +0000

By: Xxxtine

Xxxtine — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:26:43 +0000

man, it’s one thing to be debunked, but to fabricate results in order to satisfy a theory is like an accountant cooking the books before tax season. Or like that Beijing journalist faking some news event to advance their career – in the worst possible way. I think sometimes the prestige and their ambition for professional recognition in their respective fields oversteps their need to be … well … professional.

If you want to know more about the Korean society and their less than ethical ways of operation – mostly media/ journalistic- related, read Metropolitician.com. Just a disclaimer though – it IS a blog.

By: Xxxtine

Xxxtine — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 18:26:00 +0000