Medical ethics and screening: on what evidence should we support ourselves?

Armando Henrique Norman

doi:10.5712/rbmfc9(31)933

Armando Henrique Norman

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5712/rbmfc9(31)933

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Abstract

Medical ethics and screening: on what evidence should we support ourselves?

Highlights

Screening programmes entails the use of an initial selective tool or a sieve phase (i.e. mammography) to separate asymptomatic persons within the target population, that will need to undergo a classificatory or diagnostic phase - which involves a ‘gold standard’ for defining a disease (i.e. anatomopathology) – to offer patients a definitive preventive treatment for the condition screened.[5]
Screening programmes entails the use of an initial selective tool or a sieve phase to separate asymptomatic persons within the target population, that will need to undergo a classificatory or diagnostic phase - which involves a ‘gold standard’ for defining a disease – to offer patients a definitive preventive treatment for the condition screened.[5]
Screening programmes intrinsically carry the potential to convert healthy people into sick individuals at the population level, and are highly iatrogenic and could be summarized as follows: “For many are called, but few are chosen...,” but many will need to suffer for to very few be cured. This is true in the case of breast cancer screening with mammography, which renders physiopathologically insignificant cancers exposing previously healthy women to significant damages due to radiotherapy

Summary

Introduction

Screening programmes entails the use of an initial selective tool or a sieve phase (i.e. mammography) to separate asymptomatic persons within the target population, that will need to undergo a classificatory or diagnostic phase - which involves a ‘gold standard’ for defining a disease (i.e. anatomopathology) – to offer patients a definitive preventive treatment for the condition screened.[5].

Results

Conclusion