Notion idea of progress: Do medical progresses represent the idea of progress?

ORAL 2

I’m going to deal with the notion of Idea of Progress.

I will illustrate this topic through the study of the progress in the medicine area. Progress is the idea that advances in technology, science, and social organization can produce an improvement in the human condition. It is associated with ethics. Ethics is the basic concepts and fundamental principles of decent human conduct. They include the study of universal values, human or natural rights, obedience to the law of land and a concern for health and safety.

Pb: Do medical progresses represent the idea of progress?

First of all, we studied an extract of the book “The Immortal life of the Henrietta Lacks”, written in 2010 by Rebecca Skloot. After a first reading, we can notice the specific style of the author. Indeed, it really shows the theme of the book, which is a medical experiment. Expressions are also typical of an oral account of a medical experiment. The aim is for the reader to understand the scientific aspect of the discovery. Margaret Gey is obviously very determined, not very friendly, and she likes to control everything around her; but still, she is a very hardworking person. On the other side, Mary is more cheerful and cautious. Through their relationship, we understand how important it is to follow the orders in a lab, in order not to fail.

This book is the story of a woman named Henrietta who had a cervical cancer which killed her very quickly. Her doctors decided to give her cells to a lab for medical research and miraculously, the cells increased instead of dying.

But the problem is that no one in Henrietta’s family, even not her daughter, knew about it until the day they learn it thanks to a magazine article. Furthermore, those doctors put their scientific experiment above all in order to make profit. That raises a real ethical problem.

The characters of the story still respect the Hippocratic oath. We can quote “I will not be ashamed to say “I know not”” which is respected. Indeed, in the book it is said “For starters, no one knew exactly what nutrients they needed to survive”.

Also, we studied a text, “Shocking progress”, about an experience called “Transcranial electrical stimulation”. On the picture, there is a man who seems to be naked. We only see his head which has many wires plug on it as if his brain was connected to a machine. In the text, we learn that the experience is about sending electricity to the brain in order to improve a person’s maths skills. This can also be used to treat mood disorders and brain related sickness. One of the ethical questions raised, if this type of stimulation was available for people who can afford it meaning it is quite expensive, is that only rich people can use it. Also, some parents could be tempted to use it excessively on their children. But what they aren’t aware of is that it could damage their kid’s brain.

We talked about the text called “Born to save”, the saviour

...