Top BLOG Post 12-18-2008

- Doing Harm By Doing Good
“First, a little background about prostate cancer. According to the National Cancer Institute, between 27 percent and 37 percent of men between 55 to 74 years of age have prostate cancer. It is a very slow growing cancer; most men who have it end up dying of something else.
The ugly truth about prostate cancer testing is it doesn’t work. The most common test, a blood test known as PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) is terribly inaccurate. Men who have been tested have no better survival rate than men who have not.” This blog explores the ethics behind knowing whether you have prostate cancer or not when you will end up dying of something else. Why agonize over a diagnosis you can live the rest of your life with. It is a very real ethical issue in the area of medicine today.

