Marilyn Zavala

Health Sciences 2050

Patient autonomy should stop when the providers and involved care team believe the
patients are putting themselves at risk and purposely rejecting care because they prefer death
over being kept alive. In my opinion patient autonomy should only be emplaced when it relates
to religious or cultural beliefs. If a patients religion or culture does not approve of certain
procedures or treatments it should be respected. Also, autonomy should only be allowed if the
entire health care team approves of the patient deciding for their own treatment plan. If
someone in the care team decides it is against what they believe, they should be free to deny
care to the patient and step away from the situation.

Medical research should continue to grow and expand its knowledge. I find it very
interesting how some people can research and discover so many great things by observing and
watching others. A few years ago I did read about the John Hopkins Medicine research that was
based in their psychiatric unit where they would monitor and observe various types of patients
with psychological disorders. As a conclusion that helped them discover new connections
between disorders and triggers in the brain that then lead to creating new and better forms of
medication. I believe medical research is a great opportunity.

Genetic testing for the future should continue to work as well as it has. I believe it has
really good benefits and has helped many people discover genetic disorders and diseases
passed down from their ancestors that they otherwise wouldnt have known. Its probably such
a great opportunity for people who have been adopted. It also allows people to make conscious
decisions of whether they want to reproduce or not.

Egg and sperm donation should be discussed about more. Sperm donation is so easy to
do, really any male can do it if they choose to after being properly evaluated of course. Egg
donation takes time sometimes even weeks and involves surgical procedure. In order to donate
an egg you would have to take many different medications and be evaluated by multiple
doctors before even being considered a donor. I dont currently oppose to either of these
choices, it is up to the people willing to give away their DNA or not.

Abortion should be pro-choice up to 4 weeks gestation. It should not be legal to abort

anytime after that because after 4 weeks is when the fetus begins to develop organs. In my
personal opinion I believe that once a fetus develops organs and specifically a beating heart it
should be considered a separate life. Many people tend to use the excuse its my body when
in reality once the fetus forms completely it becomes its own tiny independent body. I have
been very controversial with myself in regards to this topic in the past. At one point I was totally
against it. Main reason for that was due to increase in rape and teen parents. Today, I still feel a
bit stuck in the middle when I try to understand and read more about both sides of this topic.
 Marilyn Zavala
Health Sciences 2050

Treating or terminating impaired infants should be decided by legal parent or guardian,

providers and the patient themselves. Treating impaired infants should obviously be decided by
legal parent/guardian and providers that are willing to treat the patient in various
circumstances. Terminating an impaired infants life should not be decided by anyone but the
infant themselves or a highly skilled provider. As I spoke about abortion above, I believe that
once a life is created it becomes its own separate and independent person that should be
allowed every right anyone else has.

Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide should be legal when a patient has been
properly evaluated and is under good mental and emotional condition to choose between life
and death. For example, if a patient is bed bound with multiple sclerosis and gradually declining
they should be able to request being euthanized. If they know they will have to depend on
other people for the remaining of their lives they should be allowed to choose death if they
desire so.

Payment to organ donors or their families should be a decision the receiving families
and hospitals make. The person that has now passed away decided for themselves that they
wanted to be on the donor list while they were still alive. Therefore, I dont find reason to pay
the donor or their family for making a conscious decision. Though offering payment to a person
may cause increase in donors and more lives being saved it should not be and obligation.

Allocation of healthcare should not be considered based on a persons age, quality of

life or their ability to pay. Healthcare has become such an expensive association throughout the
years that most people who even have access to health insurance consider it a major privilege. I
believe that if a person requires medical attention and care they should be able to easily access
all of it without having to worry about not qualifying or large medical bills. Everyone deserves
to live the best quality of life that they can regardless of their financial funds. Providers may
deny care to people of a certain age due to higher risks etc., but if a patient seeks professional
attention it should be granted to them.

Medical research for women should be published more often. The National Institute of
Health once stated that men, women and minorities should be published. Even though that rule
was established for that specific grant (NIH), many others still get funded without women or
very few. Men and women hormones are different therefore studies sometimes separate the
groups and publishers will only write information based on the larger group that concluded
more results. In those cases, I believe its best to separate underrated groups and create a study
for them specifically.
 Marilyn Zavala
Health Sciences 2050

Healthcare minorities should be addressed. Many people have complained throughout

the years of being treated or cared for less because of their race. Whites are the supremacy in
the United States and could possibly be receiving better care than someone who is Asian, Black
or Hispanic. Personally I havent encountered a situation like this in life, or at least not one that
I can recall. I strongly believe that if you feel like you are being treated differently as a minority
you should bring attention to it and not sit back pretending not to notice.

Those with AIDS/HIV should bring it to the attention of healthcare workers and partners.
I personally believe that the only people that deserve to know about a chronic disease is
someone who may potentially be involved with body fluids like a healthcare employee or your
partner. Otherwise, you should be able to keep that information confidential. I believe people
are still very uneducated about AIDS/HIV that it constantly gets left in the dark so when
someone actually finds out about an infected person they wont even want to shake hands or
be around that person because theyre afraid of being infected. I believe you should only share
what you want to share with the world. If you are aware of anyone that might come into
contact with your body fluids deserves to know.