2017, Vol.20, No.3

Korean Journal of Medical Ethics 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.21

pISSN : 2005-8284 / eISSN : 2234-3598
https://journal.kci.go.kr/medethics

Glivec (Imatinib) is a medication used in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia. This medication, which is manufactured by Norvatis, was licensed for prescription in South Korea in 2002. After being found guilty of providing illegal rebates to doctors who prescribe Glivec, Norvatis was fined by the Korean Ministry of Health. However, this incident has given rise to a debate concerning how exactly Norvatis should be penalized for its illegal actions. On the one hand, some argue that stiffer punishments should be issued, including a moratorium on the sale of Norvatis medication in Korea. On the other hand, some argue that such actions will unfairly punish leukemia patients rather than targeting the company itself. In this article, we examine the medical, pharmaceutical, and ethical arguments that can be given on both sides of this issue.

The purpose of this study was to compare attitudes toward death anxiety and preferences for care near the end of life between nurses and physicians. Data were collected from 225 employees (150 nurses, 75 physicians) working in a tertiary hospital in South Korea. The study found a higher presence of death anxiety in nurses than physicians. Within the category of death anxiety, the “dying of others” was highest in nurses, whereas the “death of others” was highest in physicians. Among the five dimensions of the preferred care near the end of life, “pain” was the most preferred dimension while “decision-making by health care professionals” was the least preferred dimension for both nurses and physicians. Physicians preferred autonomous decision-making and decision-making by healthcare professionals; nurses preferred pain and spirituality. The results show that adequate pain relief is the most preferred care at the end of life for both nurses and physicians. This study indicates that nurses and physicians consider patient autonomy, pain control, and spirituality as important factors in end-of-life care. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that educational intervention programs are needed to reduce the death anxiety of nurses and physicians and thereby improve their terminal care performance.

This study is a descriptive survey research to examine knowledge and attitudes of social behavioral researchers on Institutional Review Board (IRB) reviews. The data for this study was collected from structured questionnaires sent by email to 650 social behavioral researchers, including graduate students, in South Korea. A total of 165 researchers answered the survey, and 124 of these answer sets were included in the study. The data were analyzed using IBM SPSS/WIN version 21.0. The level of objective knowledge (mean score 16.01±4.04 out of 24; average correct answer 66.7%) and subjective knowledge (39.95±19.81 out of 80) was low. The attitude score was slightly more positive than the norm (3.49±0.56 out of 5). The knowledge and attitudes scores varied in accordance with certain characteristics of the subjects, such as education level, major, research experience, etc. The level of objective knowledge was significantly and positively correlated with both subjective knowledge (r=.327, p<.001) and attitude (r=.221, p=.014). The main findings of this study can be used as a foundation for developing effective educational programs for social behavioral researchers.