Ethics and the Media Project- Greys Anatomy
Dilemma
For this Media Project, I chose to watch an episode of a Grey’s Anatomy that contains a medical ethics dilemma. I watched Season 2 of Grey’s Anatomy, Episode 23 “Blues for Sister Someone.” In this episode, a woman asks Dr. Addison Shepherd to clandestinely tie her fallopian tubes (tubal ligation) while she gives birth to her 7th child through C-section. She does not wish to have any more children (seven is already a huge burden), but her devout Catholic husband does not allow birth control. Hence, she pleads Addison to help end her childbearing abilities (tying her tubes would be permanent birth control). She begs Dr. Shepherd to do the surgery in private so here is no medical record of the procedure, because she can’t have her husband find out (through insurance claims and records; she has saved up enough money to pay the procedure up front).
The medical ethical dilemma here is between the husband and the wife on their views of birth control. The woman has the right over her own body and to chose birth control if she no longer wants children, but the husband strictly follows Catholicism and is against any form of birth control. The medical decision that Addison faces is deciding whether or not she should oblige and follow her patient’s wishes and tie her tubes off-record, which would provoke some potential legal issues.
Stakeholders
There are a lot of stakeholders involved with this dilemma. Most directly, it involves the patient (wife) as it is her body that is in question. Her husband is her partner in life and his wife’s inability to produce future children impacts his life. Similarly, the rest of the family is involved, as this decision impacts the future dynamics of the family. Dr. Shepherd is another major stakeholder, since if she is the physician making the decision and if she gets caught performing