Bjork-Shiley Heart Valve Essay, Research Paper

Bjork-Shiley Heart Valve Ethics Response

Ethics are defined as rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession. In the medical field, practices and procedures are monitored for ethical appropriation at all times. Ethics in the medical field in many cases have helped to harness the dangerous powers of the field, ensuring that the powers are not abused, and have also in many cases hindered technological advancements in the field.

The Bjork-Shiley Convexo-Concave mechanical prosthetic heart valve killed 400 out of 86,000 patients. One person dying out of 215 is not a statistic that the medical field would consider ethical by any means. The heart valve was undertested and unregulated before it was used on these 86,000 patients. Shiley used a ?earn as you learn? approach to his marketing of this valve. There was a lack of communication between Shiley and the FDA as he somehow got the prosthetic valve approved for patient use in 1979.

Every year, there are around 60,000 Americans who seek to replace their faulty heart valves. This high demand made the faulty prosthetic valve very dangerous. Shiley did not inform patients even until the early 90?s of the valve?s tendency to fail. Shiley got quick, 6-month approval of the valve, without extensive and proper testing. Also, when failures began surfacing, he did not with any haste remove the valve from the market. These actions surrounding the Bjork-Shiley Prosthetic heart valve make for an unethical practice and procedure in the medical field.