After reading Flanigan’s article “Three Arguments Against Prescription Requirements” I did not know what to think. I agree completely that a doctor has no right to force someone to go with a specific treatment path or medicine, but I am having a really hard time with her argument about how people should have the right to choose what medicine they are going to take. I think that this could lead to a myriad of problems because people do not know as much about the medicines that they could be taking compared to the doctors. Becoming a doctor takes years of schooling and training for a reason, I do not think that people should just be able to say I think I will take this medicine for their medical problem because they do not know the risks or effectiveness of the drug. I think that people do deserve to have the freedom to choose which path they take for treatment, but I think that medicine choice is something that should be left with the medical professional.
Critical Thinking
I completely agree with you. I also agree with the role and importance of doctors, we can’t pretend that that job is easy and that the average citizen knows enough to make the decisions a doctor would. And I agree with the freedom to choose, so I can’t identify for myself what I see as the main issue in the way we have our system now.
I completely agree with your response. I think it is important that patients have the right to decide if the treatment the doctor prescribes is unnecessary, however, I think leaving everything to self-medication would lead to a slew of more issues and than problems it would solve. I think in general, any time someone seeks out the advice of an expert, in medicine, in fitness and nutrition or investments, they end up having greater results that make the extra cost of an expert worth it. People that try to ‘beat the market’ and do not listen to professional advice rarely outperform the market and are more likely to get lower returns. I think when it comes to treating illness, the stakes are elevated, and the idea that people are better off medicating themselves seems bizarre to me.
I agree with your point that people are generally not knowledgeable enough to prescribe themselves medication. I also think this could lead to false prescriptions and possible abuse problems. Im not sure what people even think they would rather chose their own medication compared to a doctor with years of experience and knowledge. Similar to the Hildalgo piece, I think this is an instance where ethics/morals and actual situations come to a crossroads.
I like how you added the portion on not knowing the side effects of drugs. I think that it is an important point because while a person may think that they should be taking x drug, they most likely will not know how that drug will interact with another drug they are currently taking. There are so many factors when it comes to prescribing medications that the average person does not understand, making it getting rid of prescriptions can become dangerous because of drug interactions that people don’t understand.
I completely agree with your points and highlighted a number of the same in my response. I also liked your emphasis on a patient’s right to choice as well as the your emphasis on a doctor’s medical expertise because I agree that someone who fully understands the prescription drugs and their side effects should be in control of who uses them.
I completely agree with everything you said. Patients should have the right to choose their treatment path, but giving them the ability to choose what medicine they take (especially if they haven’t had the medical training like doctors) is scary to me.
I thought this was a very insightful response and it reminded me a lot of the debate regarding vaccines where ordinary citizens are frankly not educated enough to make that decision. The difference, to my mind, lies in the fact that not getting all of the proper vaccines can impact others more than various manners of self-medicating.