Tracking you chemically? Ethical?

[kim]

(22-01-2013 02:10 PM)Hobbitgirl Wrote:  Okay so I found this article about how they've come up with a way to tell if mental patients are taking their medication through some tracking device. (Apparently that dissolves into the bloodstream)

Here is the article

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/...t-ethical/


Some are saying its a good idea, citing that caregiver here in Oregon who was stabbed to death by one of the people she supported when he chose to lower his dosage without their knowledge. (This hits me close to home because I'm in the same line of work and face the same risk every day)

While others are calling it unethical, and invasion of privacy, or equal to chemical castration of convicted rapists?

I'm just curious of other peoples views. Ethical or not?

I don't think it's unethical but I have to think such monitoring would also be very dependent on case by case diagnosis. Some individuals might be considered a danger to themselves and others without prescribed medication, while others may only be considered marginally mentally ill or disabled. I think the decision rests largely on the physician regarding the individual's medical diagnosis, to be fully in charge of that individual's chemical alteration.

That physician should also be in charge of notifying any caregiver of the patient's nature and medications. Somewhere in all this, I'm sure insurance companies will have some say in what transpires. They will not only be insuring the physician, the patient, and the caregiver but also the pharmaceutical company responsible for the medication.

I have to wonder if this brings up the issue of the criminalization of mental illness... with it's already prevalent social stigmas, I think this needs much greater attention and open dialogue.

I think the ethical issue also becomes who decides that the mentally ill person is a danger to him/herself or others and I do have reservations about that. My Dad had slight dementia in the last couple of years of life -more from the medications he was on than anything else. In the last few months, they tried to put him on an anti-psychotic to "keep him calm" like the others in his convalescent facility. I refused this and he was able to spend the last 4 or 5 months relatively perceptible and coherent. I know he would have suffered more horrendously than he already had and had I not had power of attorney, our last bit of time together would have him a drooling idiot.

***
You mentioned the chemical castration of convicted rapists. I suppose I don't have a problem with that because these people have already been certified as violent and a danger. I'm considering this would primarily be an alternative for serial offenders and those unable to control themselves.
(This in comparison to a mentally ill person who has no choice in the matter... unable to control themselves... ... hmm... ? Maybe that's something else needing addressed.)

However, I would go more uh... natural than chemical castration to rather surgically remove the testicles of serial rapists and most certainly of pedophiles with no hormone treatment. That too would need to be decided in a case by case circumstance.
If one has lived a life of violence, it's time to have that violence physically removed from one's charge. Maybe it would give that person a lifetime to think of what they've taken from others.

If that seems harsh; too fucking bad. Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.

Sorry but I think I'm just sick and tired of violence.

***
Oh and... those men in India currently facing rape and now murder charges... yep, nuts off.

[Impulse]

(22-01-2013 02:10 PM)Hobbitgirl Wrote:  Okay so I found this article about how they've come up with a way to tell if mental patients are taking their medication through some tracking device. (Apparently that dissolves into the bloodstream)

Here is the article

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2013/...t-ethical/


Some are saying its a good idea, citing that caregiver here in Oregon who was stabbed to death by one of the people she supported when he chose to lower his dosage without their knowledge. (This hits me close to home because I'm in the same line of work and face the same risk every day)

While others are calling it unethical, and invasion of privacy, or equal to chemical castration of convicted rapists?

I'm just curious of other peoples views. Ethical or not?

They would have to inform the patients about this or it would be unethical on that basis alone.

However, I'm against this for other reasons. I believe medicine shouldn't be taken unless it's absolutely needed. There are too many side effects and other issues. So granted, mentally ill people may really need psychiatric medications, but adding something extra strictly for tracking purposes is not absolutely needed. I think we have a right to protect ourselves against dangerous people, but that means locking them up behind mental health ward doors, for example. We do not have the right to cause them physical harm, and introducing unnecessary foreign substances into their body just might cause physical harm. Furthermore, I don't trust people to use this only for "appropriate" (whatever that means) people. It will get applied to other people not originally intended for its use.

[Dom]

(24-01-2013 12:00 PM)kim Wrote:  

(22-01-2013 02:10 PM)Hobbitgirl Wrote:  However, I would go more uh... natural than chemical castration to rather surgically remove the testicles of serial rapists and most certainly of pedophiles with no hormone treatment.

Removal of testicles does not cause impotence. It just causes infertility.

[Hamata k]

(24-01-2013 12:50 PM)Dom Wrote:  Removal of testicles does not cause impotence. It just causes infertility.

he's right. what you need to do is surgically remove their brain with a shotgun.

[Vera]

(27-01-2013 12:19 PM)Hamata k Wrote:  She's right. what you need to do is surgically remove their brain with a shotgun.

Fixt.

Just sayin'

[Hamata k]

(27-01-2013 12:21 PM)Vera Wrote:  

(27-01-2013 12:19 PM)Hamata k Wrote:  She's right. what you need to do is surgically remove their brain with a shotgun.

Fixt.

Just sayin'

I'm a busy deity. I don't have time to be checking genders all the time. I leave the small things to my underlings.....speaking of which. Thanks.

[Vera]

(27-01-2013 12:28 PM)Hamata k Wrote:  I don't have time to be checking genders all the time.

Ah, but that can be so much fun... And what's the point of being a deity, if you're not gonna have fun...

[Hamata k]

(27-01-2013 12:30 PM)Vera Wrote:  

(27-01-2013 12:28 PM)Hamata k Wrote:  I don't have time to be checking genders all the time.

Ah, but that can be so much fun... And what's the point of being a deity, if you're not gonna have fun...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Not having fun!? Oh my. where have you been?

[Vera]

(27-01-2013 12:35 PM)Hamata k Wrote:  

(27-01-2013 12:30 PM)Vera Wrote:  Ah, but that can be so much fun... And what's the point of being a deity, if you're not gonna have fun...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Not having fun!? Oh my. where have you been?

Ah, so you're omnivorous then?

(And by that, I mean, that gender doesn't matter)

[Hamata k]

(27-01-2013 12:43 PM)Vera Wrote:  

(27-01-2013 12:35 PM)Hamata k Wrote:  BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Not having fun!? Oh my. where have you been?

Ah, so you're omnivorous then?

(And by that, I mean, that gender doesn't matter)

Why doe this keep coming up?

I am Hamata and I like boobs.

There. That's been dealt with.