Ethics

Over time, there have been controversial issues within the health care sector prompting a heated debate over moral and social concerns relating to these practices. Such issues include the qualities expressed by care providers. Hence, it is important that the medical care provider practices confidentiality.

According to the ethics manual of the American College of Physicians, confidentiality is a fundamental principle in health care provision (Dal  Beaglehole, 2003). The provider ought to respect the privacy of patients. The provider should be able to engage them in discussing their issues candidly and without discrimination on the basis of ones medical condition. He or she should thus respect the patients rights as well as their privacy and confidences as stipulated by the law. It is also important that the medical care provider expresses beneficence as much as possible. This implies that the provider will be of benefit to the patient and will go to all depths within their reach to stop or privet the harm from destroying patients.  The provider ought to be driven by the obligation to serve and not by financial interests (Pearson, 2000).

The provider should be just in providing care services. This implies that heshe ought to be fair in administering care to all patients. For instance, when resources are limited, the provider should be fair enough to allocate them equally and appropriately to all patients irrespective of their ability to pay (Joint Learning Initiative, (2004). The provider should be able to make a rational judgment regarding some of the controversial matters in modern health care. The provider should not express maleficence.  This implies that they should not intend to or administer any harmful drugs or services to patients. The providers should be appropriately trained. This applies to the quality of training that a provider received.

Currently, some non-certified profit-oriented institutions are offering health care training services and have resulted into a compromise on quality (Zurn, et al, 2003). Some private health care centers are even operated unlawfully. I would expect the care provider handling my case to have obtained a competent and relevant training. This will reduce the probability of mistakes which if otherwise, could result into more harm. Sufficient training ensures that a provider achieves the optimal international standards (National Bioethics Conference, 2007). Insufficient training has been the cause for the use of second-class medicine and wrong diagnosis which usually adds problems rather than solving them. This is attributed to lack of national certification tests for evaluating the training attained by graduates from both public and private institutions.

Ethical Developments in Health Care
Various ethical concerns have been raised with regard to various aspects of the health care field. Compromising on professional conduct in the midst of self interest has been an ethical issue over time. This is basically due to lack especially in the developing countries, of standards and principles necessary for defining professional integrity (Lucas, 2004). These standards also define what optimal care under severely constrained resources implies and are essential for forming a basis for professional behavior. Unethical behavior such as referring patients from government centers to their own centers has escalated. Social and moral concerns have been raised following the use of X-ray technology in the diagnosis process. It is clear that X-rays could result into radiations which are a threat to the tissues. Thus it is a wonder whether one is really worth it if exposure to it could damage ones tissues.

Ethical concerns have rose form the issue of informed consent when using technology such as X-rays. When a patient requires further attention using technology such as X-ray diagnosis, it is of great importance that they give an informed consent regarding the same. This implies that the provider is ethically obliged to first inform the patient about the implications of the process (Cash  Wikler, 2003). If a patient is not informed about such moves they may end up making decision that contract their values or beliefs. Lack of policy changes to accompany advances in technology has led to neglect of the poor by modern healthcare providers. This has raised ethical concerns as care is no longer accessible to all.

In most cases, this technology is not available in resource-poor places. Moreover, in a profit oriented health care market, there is a challenge among the poor in paying for services such as X-ray diagnosis. This implies that poor patients do not receive the right treatment and this has always been neglected (Feachem, 2000). The application of this technology has also raised ethical concerns. For instance, questions have been raised as to whether it is right to use life support machines. The morals behind artificial reproduction such as in the case of production of test-tube babies have been thoroughly discussed.