University of San Agustin

General Luna St., 5000 Iloilo City, Philippines

www.usa.edu.ph

COLLEGE OF HEALTH AND ALLIED MEDICAL PROFESSIONS - DEPARTMENT OF NURSING

Name: Red Angela O. Dinson Course & Section: BSN 2-B

Instructions
Case Analysis: Read about the nature of law & conscience and its relationship with healthcare (refer to
your handout) as well as from the web. Analyze and give your opinion regarding Case A. Explain it in 5
to 10 sentences.

Case A.

A certain doctor-scientist exerts all her efforts to invent an absolute cure for a dreaded disease. She
invents one and applies it to chimpanzees infected with the advanced stage of such a disease. The said
drug is proven so effective among the chimpanzees because they are cured altogether. There is no other
newly found cure for the disease but that one. Upon knowing it, several patients with the disease rush to
the doctor-scientist and ask for the cure. The said drug has never yet been tested among human beings.
Should the doctor-scientist give the drug to the patients when it is not yet tested and proven effective
among human beings? Why? Why not?

Answer:

It is a big NO, because according to natural law and conscience, law is for the people. It should
restore and rehabilitate humanity. Natural law in a health care must serve people with all equality and thus
it protects and sustains the entire welfare of a man. So, if that doctor-scientist gave a drug that has not yet
scientifically tested and proven then that scientist can bare all his conscience with his choice of action.
He/she must be judge with his own ethical principles and moral values towards the health care he
provides. Even if there are a lot of scientific researches and experimentation to be work on, all I think that
it is the proper thing to do, to investigate and continuously do an experimental research that could not
inflict harm to anybody. Man is not a mechanical robot that could be manipulated in a work that has a 0%
probability to be engineered successfully. That is why Thomas Aquinas stated “Law is an ordinance of
reason promulgated by competent authority for the common good”. Thus, the common good signifies to
all the people in the community, which law is for the people not just for people. It should protect
humankind not to harm them.

Email: cn@usa.edu.ph | Tel. No.: 0999-997-1485 | Fax No.: (033) 337-4403