All perceived benefits carry with them a known risk.?

Question

What examples show that this statement is true?
How can we resolve the conflict between benefit and harm?

Thank you so much, i can't wait till BMAT is over xXxXx

Answer 1

The statement that you presented is essentially saying that nothing in medicine is 100% effective or beneficial and that there is always a margin for error as medicine is practiced by humans and we humans are capable of making mistakes. An example of this is a surgery that is 99% sure to remove the cancer and allow for healing. The benefit of course is the survival of the individual with cancer, but the risk is that the surgeon messes up during the operation and does not remove all of the tumor or other such errors. How about vaccinations? We might assume that the only thing they can bring to us is benefit, but what if that sample of vaccination was faulty and the sample of the disease against which you were being vaccinated was not completely dead? Instead of protecting you, the vaccination might then harm you. As for resolving hte conflict between benefit and harm, im sorry to say that there is no resolution. It all comes down to human opinion and judgement. That is why they make people studying to be doctors take ethics courses. You see, benenfit and harm are suhc relative terms. For one person, the risks of that cancer surgery are worth taking and the surgery is all benefit, but for someone who is afraid of surgery, it may seem too harmful because there is too much room for the surgeon to mess up.

Answer 2

A woman has a small breast malignancy and has it surgically removed, but acquires a strep infection post-op that takes her life.

All precautions should be taken to make the operating environment sterile; but one must also realize that with any surgery there is risk of infection.

A man is given an anti-inflammatory for joint pain. After years of taking it, the company that manufactured it reports that this drug has caused many deaths from gastrointestinal bleeding. The man has a bleed and almost dies. The drug is removed from the market.

Doctors should research new drugs far better before prescribing them.