Question

In the movie Patch Adams what were the ethical and legal issues the hospital, clinic, and educational institution encountered

Answer 1

The film does not give significant attention to the academic side of Patch Adams. The director shows that he has the best results but it never shows how he got there. As a medical student, it is equally important to know the facts as to be passionate. who apparently never has to crack a book in order to finish top of his medical school class. That, at least, is Hollywood’s idea of genius. So he has plenty of time to spend in the hospital playing games and telling jokes to cheer patients up. He insists that this is good medicine, that patients “share their fantasies” with him.

Adams is introduced as a mentally unstable character who attempted suicide at the beginning of the movie. But with this incident, the spectator gets to know that he has grown himself to a
mentally stable character able to face challenges in life. This gives baseless hopes that psychiatric illness can be cured with affectionate behaviour.

Throughout the movie, Patch Adams was getting attached to a lot of patients consistently, even though it is the law that doctors cannot form any personal relationships with patients and must be professional. The contracts with the beneficence theory because in order to act in the best interest of the patient, and the health society, getting emotionally attached to a patient usually does not end well.

At the beginning of the movie, the doctors were inserting a needle into one of the patients in the mental hospital without his consent. This ethical issue falls under the justice principle in which all patients must be treated fairly. The doctors did not ask the patient or even tell him, that he was going to be inserted with a needle.

He went against the dean’s rules and the program rules on not seeing an actual patient until the 3rd year. Patch was told on two different occasions to stay out of the hospital and away from the patients. He could have been removed from the program and lost the chance to become a physician. Patch also set up an illegal medical facility for people who could not afford medical insurance. For Patch to accomplish his goal legally he shouldn’t have set up the medical facility without permission or a license to practice.