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Toward a Standard of Medical Care: Why Medical Professionals Can Refuse to Prescribe Puberty Blockers.

Ryan Kulesa
Published in: The New bioethics : a multidisciplinary journal of biotechnology and the body (2022)
That a standard of medical care must outline services that benefit the patient is relatively uncontroversial. However, one must determine how the practices outlined in a medical standard of care should benefit the patient. I will argue that practices outlined in a standard of medical care must not detract from the patient's well-functioning and that clinicians can refuse to provide services that do. This paper, therefore, will advance the following two claims: (1) a standard of medical care must not cause dysfunction, and (2) if a physician is medically rational to not provide some service which fails to meet the above condition (i.e. fails to be a standard of medical care), then she may refuse to do so. I then apply my thesis to the prescription of puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria.
Keyphrases
  • healthcare
  • primary care
  • mental health
  • case report
  • palliative care
  • emergency department
  • young adults
  • oxidative stress
  • health insurance
  • pain management