The Movie Wit

The movie Wit is an interesting movie that shows how death can be sometimes better for a person. Wit is a movie about a woman who has stage 4 cancer and is not being cured. She lost all of her hair and she spends all her day throwing up and drinking more medicine. As she is in the hospital she remembers all of the things she has done in her life and everything she regrets. As she is battling cancer, her doctor (Dr. Kesian) and her nurse (Suzie) try to do everything they can to cure her.

The patients nurse Suzie follows the ethical principal of Beneficence. The principle of beneficence means to do the most good as possible. At the end of the movie, Vivian's heart stops and the doctor that was in the room called to have her in intensive care. Vivian told her doctor that if her heart stops to let it. The nurse wouldn't let the doctor call and stopped them from resuscitating her because she knew that would've done the most good. She knew what the patient wanted and made sure that it was done.

Dr. Kesian did not follow the Least Harm principle. Vivian was in a lot of pain and he would not give her the better treatment, he assumed that she was tough and didn't need it. The nurse suggested the better treatment but he did not listen to her. Doing the least harm means that both ways are not beneficial but one will cause the least harm. Either way, Vivian's cancer was not treatable so the doctor should have given her the treatment that caused the least pain.

The doctor did not follow the Respect for Autonomy principle. Respect for Autonomy means that a person decides and has the right to choose what happens to them and what happens in their lives. The patient is the one who decides what happens to her body. Vivian decided that if her heart stops then the doctor should just let it stop and not try to save her or put her in intensive care. When the patient's heart did stop, the doctor called to get her in intensive care and didn't respect what the patient wanted done. The doctor was supposed to respect the patient's wishes and leave her dead.

The principle of Justice was being followed in this movie. Justice is to be fair to everyone including the patient. What the patient wants has to be accounted for as well. The patient did end up getting what she wanted even though the doctor did make a mistake. The doctor did try to give her the medicine and the treatment but her cancer was not getting cured. No matter what the doctor would have done, the cancer would've still ended up killing her. The doctor was being fair so there was justice in this situation.

The theory of Deontology was being followed and was not by the doctor. Deontology means that people do things and make choices based on their obligations and duties. The doctor felt that his duty was to save lives. When he saw that the patient was not breathing he quickly called for intensive care because he felt that that