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Spotlight Monday, April 21, 1986 giiihii mi mnmn mmmmmmmmMamm iimiMwmTHE GAMFP.nr.K MMmnuiHBMM^swMagB^BgBiacsasaaMgiiitntiipnTriHaMM^MBBBii J PhilosopS with con Nora Bell's beeper screams for her attention. She rushes through the hospital to the awaiting emergency, where she will help the physician decide what art;. ? if any ? should be taken. When Bell joins her colleague at the patient's bedside, she does not prescribe drugs, order radical surtcry or perform resuscitation. Bell is not a physician, but Richland Memorial Hospital's first medical ethicist-in-residencc. Her job in the county hospital is unique, and until lately, a hospital probably would have been an alien environment for a philosophy professor. But her presence alongside doctors is quite appropriate and part of a national reaction to ethical issues arising from advances in medical technology, changes in legislation and ballooning health-care costs tied to limited resources. Recognizing the need to teach ? physicians to deal with such issues, USC's School of Medicine added the USC philosophv nro fessor, who specializes in medical ethics, to its faculty and admissions committee. As a faculty and hospital staff member, Bell gives seminars, consults with doctors and attends doctors' rounds among their patients. Among the questions under continuing discussion are the definition of life, quality of life, rights of the unborn and allocation of limited health-care dollars. "Doctors already have a good fpf?| fnr Pthinal .... VIII1VUI V.Ull31UtUUIUIl), but often they don't verbalize them," Bell says. "I try to raise their consciousness of other dimensions. These ethical considerations may ultimately alter their medical decisions. "The medical ethicist is not someone to say, 'This is what you should do,' but rather is a sounding board to work through moral overtones of the medical .p"" I INTROE C0MPA1 SPONSORED BY: STUDENT Ta ^ Our low-cost, IBM PC? -compa p PC comes in a dual drive model I 256K of RAM ? upgradable to 6 without additional expansion card of disk storage. The ability to suj peripherals right out of the box. industry standard MS-DOS opera ? the one most used in the busir today. So now you can run virtus PC software ? and do it 60% fas IBM PC ? at a fraction of its co: So call or visit Carolina Compi 1114 Washington St., 771-7706 i save a bundle on your very own ! personal computer you can use n< your future career. You may nev< smarter way to bring down the c 9 education! u___ hy profess isultation , d pih^v Hwi ^fcJLS Bjg> - nwyn Bell teaches a philosophy course in addi decision. Most ethicists don't claim to have the answers." Highly publicized cases, like those of the extended comatose life of Karen Ann Quinlan and Baby Doc, the infant whose parents refused corrective surgery for life-threatening birth defects, have demonstrated that medical emics have been outpaced by rapid and highly sophisticated advances in medical technology. Federal guidelines resulting from the Baby Doe case call for the establishment of bioethical I LAY DO 1 BECOM ! HOURS |1 NEW DQNQt j | HYLAND PLASMA CE 11620 GERVAIS ST. B L BRING DOWN TK YOUR EDUC OPEN H( lUCING THE ZENH 1BLE Z148 PC. Carolina omputer infer and PHI S, FACULTY, ike a Look . . IBM-PC Coi 512 K RAM IV Doubleside - E Drive (360K) Monochrome <5 RS232C Serial \ Detachable Ke All Cables ~A Selectable F? M D.O.S. Operat the ^ jw ana in er find a -TTT?r^ComPl oat of your r r *=^C?n/?f sor aids i on ethici ... ? * ^ilF. C. VISKO HATFIELOfThe Gamecock tion to her work with a hospital review committees in hospitals, and Bell is working with Richland Memorial physicians to develop such a panel. Prior to becoming a medical ethicist-in-residencc at Richland Mf mnrinl LkdJ ? uv.i iruo V-IJJWOVU IU the complexities of medical decisionmaking at Baylor University's College of Medicine and at Texas Medical Center in Houston. She was initiated in this new role last summer as one of 10 Exxon Fellows in Ethics at Baylor. WN ON THE J E A PLASMA DPI >: 7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. N 5S ARRIVE BEFORE 4 p.m. f NTER etween Pickens and Henders For More Info Call 254-2280 umHmtmmammatmmmmamKm [E COST OF ATION )USE rH LOW-COST I )ta 'stems DELTA THETA & STAFF I mpatible With: lemory >ouble Density Disk i RGB Video Outputs I Port & Parallel Port lyboard (HZ & 8 MHZ Crystal ing Systein ina 1114 Washington St. Columbia 771-7706 doctors [ il issues "Physicians don't have time to null .1 i^uu unu mcuii^c. i ncy arc bombarded from all sides to make quick decisions ? questions arc fired at them by family, residents and nurses," she explains. "This doesn't mean physicians shouldn't analyze the theoretical. There is great value in rehearsing options in advance of these situations. Prior training in clinical settings better prepares physicians to make decisions and feel more comfortable anout their ultimate actions." Bell said she was amazed at how receptive Baylor doctors | were to having ethicists around, and she said she received a similar enthusiastic reception from doctors at USC's School of Medicine and at Richland Memorial. USC fnmilv mpM jpinp nrAfocc/xr I I .... ^ ...vv?aviliv |yi \J I V.1.1UI Robert Mallin and other faculty members work with Bell to sensitize students and residents to ethical aspects of decisionmaking in handling cases on clinical rounds. "Medical philosophy used to be 'do everything you can to prolong life,' but medical ethics no longer is that simple," Mallin said. "It is difficult to seperate medicine and ethics," he said. ~ m [ Jl I uno ^ l JF i-F JHL !kiASE_* HVLAND S PLASM 0 ! ion ; Howtt perlbn I gg^v Ik^J, HBSHUKT mm S jtr The Heat is On Jason Ringenberg, lead singer for Jas crowd at the outdoor concert Saturday i of Carolina Program Union's Spring Flin s$$$$$$$$$$$$sssssss s s 1 his Coupor I SS ?fi nni r ? VJ? 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