Application of the Conflict Perspective in Healthcare - Essay Example

Medical professionals have a role of ensuring that they have taken due diligence when taking care of patients, meaning that they have to observe the standard healthcare practices. In fact, before administering medication, it is vital for the patient or a next of keen individual to give consent and this mainly applies if such treatment is complicated and risky. For instance, blood cells are vital for the existence and health of a living thing, thus making it necessary for the doctors to ask without coercion for the possibility of obtaining them from an individual. This means that even if the medical professionals have exclusive rights to give prescription for the sick, there exist some restrictions that must be adhered to in the bid to maintain high levels of competence and reliability.

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The case under study involves the extraction of cells from a human body (a patient) without her consent and then using them for medical research, which eventually becomes viable and assists the populace from many diseases. For instance, the main benefits of the research include the making of anti-depression pills and blood pressure medicines. Nevertheless, from a professional point of view, the medical professionals had violated the code of conduct even if they were involved in the act as a way of obtaining some cells of medical experiments. The lady might not have been hurt but given that it is unethical as well as unprofessional for a medical practitioner to be involved in such an activity, the medical facility stand to be judged and even pay for the damages.

Different theories can be used to explain the perspective through which the case should be based, meaning that there can be a diverse of explanations as to what can be done for the family whose mother donated the HeLa cells without her knowledge. In fact, a perspective is a way of focusing on something and then giving a sociological point of view. Therefore, a perspective can be used to highlight a particular theoretical observation and predict the events in the social world. For instance, the conflict perspective views the society as an environment that is composed of many groups with divergent interests and goals, thus competing for power and resources. The case under study can be based on this premise given that the medical professionals wanted to accomplish their desire of conducting a successful research and even if it was viable thus assisting the society, Deborahs mother was offended given that her rights were not considered.

The conflict perspective is important in trying to analyze the best course of action that needs to be taken given that there are two parties involved in this case, the family and the medical facility in which the cells were taken without consent. The management bears the responsibility of ensuring that its staff are qualified and observes the standard healthcare practices while administering medication. This means that the medical facility should compensate the family and ensure that its staff follow the due process while performing their professional roles as well as carrying out of research. Any form of research should be conducted professionally and the process of fact finding or gathering of information done in a professional way as well as consent seeked where necessary. If this is not done, then whoever obtained and used a piece of information without consent should be held accountable for the unprofessional and unethical activity.

The conflict perspective can also be viewed differently given that the research that was conducted helped in the promotion of better healthcare services. However, the positive side should never be used as a strategy to suppress the affected family members from being compensated. In fact, irrespective of the outcome of the research, it was vital to follow the standard practices. If this is not done, then more unethical and unprofessional practices will have to be performed by the medical professionals and then use the concept that they are trying to come up with different types of medication but in the real sense, they are infringing on the patient rights and freedoms. The conflict between the affected family and the success of the research that was conducted using the unethically obtained cells persists and should not be downplayed. In fact, the most important thing is to ensure that the law has taken its course and justice done to the family, even if it has taken a considerably long period for the reality to be unveiled.

In summary, the conflict perspective views the society as a component of different parts that compete for resources and power, meaning that the best competitive stands to win. Nevertheless, the week ones should also survive, thus prompting the necessity of having better legal structures that can protect them from any form oppression. That is one of the major reasons as to why the medical facility in which the HeLa cells were obtained from a patient without consent should be held accountable and thus pays for damages. To this end, the paper has highlighted the necessity to observe the professional standards when performing tasks and responsibilities in which we have been assigned given that if this is done, the professionals will remain on the safe side of the law.