Introduction
Of late, cases have been reported where people have suffered from unknown illnesses. Such patients have died because of a lack of available medications for these illnesses. In addition, people; especially those from poor countries have died due to lack of proper medical facilities and the cost incurred in treating the diseases. This has spurred the desire by different local doctors to look for ways and means of curing these diseases at a cheaper price. This move has not been received well by qualified doctors with some terming it as unethical and illegal. Such doctors fear that more lives may be lost in the name of trying to treat the affected victims. Today, the issue of using unproven methods in treating patients has been hotly contested. This paper aims at giving some reasons as to why it is morally upright to promote unproven treatments.
Reasons for promoting unproven treatment
Speak with people from poor backgrounds and they will tell you that catering for medication has become a nightmare to most of them. For instance, people suffering from cancer and HIV/AIDS require a huge amount of money to cater for medical services and buy the necessary drugs. This has led to most of such victims succumbing to these diseases as they can not be treated without money. Despite medical practitioners terming the use of unproven treatments as unethical, it would be wise to try some of the unproven methods that are said to cure specific diseases. It would not be wise to act ethically at the expense of the less fortunate. After all, most of the unproven treatments have no side effects to patients (Vaughn para. 2). Consequently, if the methods prove ineffective they would not have adversely affected the patients. It would be imperative to give these people a chance to try the method. In case the unproven method turns out to be effective, we will have significantly helped the patients. This is because their hope for a good future will have been rejuvenated.
One of the major reasons why scientists are against unproven treatment methods is the conviction that those diseases that qualified doctors have been unable to treat are incurable and can not be treated in any other way. As a result, those people who claim to have the capacity of treating them are taken to be quack and their claim overlooked. This has been detrimental to patients as they have ended up dying. It would be wise to try the methods as some may turn out to be effective. One of the better pieces of evidence of the effectiveness of the unproven treatments is one where people have been cured of cancer in China. Doctors in China are using chemoembolization to cure different varieties of cancer (Isahak para. 5).
Despite the method not having been proven, some doctors in China have claimed to successfully treat advanced cancer. Some patients who once had no hope about their future have found their life given a new lift. Patients with advanced cancer from Malaysia have traveled all the way to China for treatment. Of those who have been treated, there has been evidence that some have greatly benefited. For instance, a woman from Malaysia was suffering from breast cancer. After undergoing the treatment, a later scan revealed that her cancer had been cured. This gives hope to the effectiveness of some of the unproven treatments.
Conclusion
The main objective of treating patients is to give them a lift in their life and give them hope for a better future. It would not be wise to oppose the use of unproven treatment methods in the name of upholding ethics in the medical field. To alleviate suffering from the less fortunate and those that doctors have not been able to cater for, it is right to try some of the unproven treatments that their inventors claim to be effective.
Works Cited
Isahak, Amir Farid. “Hope for cancer.” 2009. Web.
Vaughn, Lewis. “Is it right to promote unproven treatments?” 1997. Web.