Chapter 1:
Physicians, Patients, and Others: Roles and Responsibilities
Multiple Choice Questions
1) The debate over whether parents should be required to vaccinate their children is a debate over
a) science.
b) how society should approach parents who believe that there is a link between autism and
vaccination.
c) whether to provide public education to unvaccinated children.
d) the separation of Church and State.
2) The relatively light sentence that the Neumanns received when they attempted to use faith–
healing indicates that
a) faith-healing is widely accepted in America.
b) religion no longer is important in American life.
c) whether parents neglect their children for religious or non-religious reasons is taken into
account in sentencing.
d) there is a separation of Church and State in America.
3) Every public health decision involves value judgments about
a) health.
b) sickness.
c) freedom of choice.
d) all of these choices.
4) Definitions of healthy and unhealthy behavior
a) are fixed over time.
b) are determined by medical professionals alone.
c) shift over time.
d) are determined by vote.
5) Which of the following is or are an example of “state paternalism”?
a) licensing requirements
b) restrictions on therapies and treatments paid for by governmentally sponsored health
insurances such as Medicare or Medicaid
c) restrictions on the use of government research funds
d) all of these choices
6) Which of the following is or are required for consent to be considered morally and legally
meaningful?
a) the individual must be competent to understand her condition and capable of exercising
judgment about her care
b) relevant and understandable information about condition and care must be provided
c) the individual must be free to decide without coercion
d) all of these choices
7) According to a person who endorses a paternalistic approach to medicine, a physician
deceiving her patient
a) is justified only when it is in the best interest of the patient.
b) is never justified.
c) is justified when it is done for the greater good of all.
d) is justified only if the patient’s family requires the physician to do so.
8) The use of placebos would be criticized by someone who believed that
a) the doctor-patient relationship is based on paternalism.
b) informed consent is of moral importance.
c) doctors should only use remedies that have been shown to work.
d) all of these choices.
9) Recognizing patients as autonomous agents and securing their free and autonomous consent to
their treatment is required by
a) paternalistic concern for patient well-being.
b) respect for their dignity.
c) the duty of beneficence.
d) The duty to do no harm.
10) State laws that require physicians to be mandated reporters could be justified on the basis of
a) the duty to warn.
b) the duty to rescue.
c) paternalism.
d) the right to confidentiality.
11) Under what conditions did John Stuart Mill think that freedom of choice could be restricted?
a) When doing so would cause harm to the person who was acting.
b) When doing so would prevent harm to someone other than the person acting.
c) Under no circumstances.
d) When doing so would enhance social well-being.
12) Since on W.D. Ross’s theory everyone has a moral right to be treated as an autonomous
agent, which of the following is true?
a) Securing a person’s free and informed consent to her medical treatment is required.
b) Everyone is entitled to know the truth and to be educated in helpful ways.
c) Everyone is entitled to medical confidentiality.
d) All of these choices
13) The following are examples of paternalism according to Gerald Dworkin:
a) requiring motorcyclists to wear safety helmets when operating their vehicles
b) laws making it legal for women and children to work at certain types of jobs
c) requiring doctors to report cases of apparent child abuse to legal authorities
d) none of these choices
14) Psychiatrists face special ethical problems concerning
a) the duty to rescue.
b) the duty to do no harm.
c) the duty to warn.
d) the duty to lie.
True/False Questions
1) There is a cost to prizing the right of parents to make decisions about their children’s best
interests.
2) The cause of Robyn Twitchell’s death was so rare and complex that it is unlikely that she
could have been successfully treated even if her parents had taken her to a hospital.
3) Autonomy is considered to be an absolute and unconditional right that cannot be infringed
upon under any circumstances.
4) Mayor Bloomberg’s attempt to cap the portion sizes of sugar-sweetened drinks in New York
City was an example of the application of “personal paternalism”.
5) To act autonomously is to have our actions be the outcome of our self-determining
deliberations and choices.
6) Patients have historically, sociologically and psychologically held an equal and independent
role with respect to physicians.
7) When parents fail to take reasonable steps to secure the welfare of their children, then doing
so becomes a matter of interest to the state.
8) According to Onora O’Neill the autonomy of actual patients is limited.
9) Anita Catlin argues that in cases where the patients are Jehovah’s Witness children, physicians
should explore alternative treatments not requiring the use of blood products.
10) According to Eugene Rosam, it is unacceptable to try to convince Jehovah’s Witness parents
to give up their beliefs.
11) Michelle Gold believes that truth-telling should be viewed as a dialogue between moral
agents.
12) Cullen and Klein argue that the principle of respect for persons grounds physicians’ duties
not to deceive their patients.
13) Mark Siegler argues that the confidentiality of the physician-patient relationship can be
maintained in modern hospital setting by making sophisticated use of new electronic
recording keeping.
14) The California Supreme Court ruled that the therapists at the University of California,
Berkeley, were not negligent in failing to warn Tatiana Tarasoff that one of her patients had
threatened Tarasoff because a therapist has an absolute duty to protect her patient’s
confidentiality.
15) From a medical standpoint, children’s interests can differ from those of their parents.