The Challenges of Total Joint Replacement in Obese Individuals: Clinical and Ethical Issues
Total joint replacement is a surgical procedure with profound impact on patients’ activity and quality of life, and this surgical procedure is highly utilized on both sides of the Atlantic. Due to new payment models in the United States and cost-constraints in the NHS, eligibility criteria are now being used by physicians to determine who may receive total joint replacement. I will explore the ethics of patient selection to improve outcomes; specifically, screening patients by body mass index to determine eligibility for total joint replacement. I argue that this type of screening is not ethically defensible, and that the creation of eligibility cutoffs is likely to lead to unfair restrictions on who receives total joint replacements.
Date: 26 June 2018, 11:00 (Tuesday, 10th week, Trinity 2018)
Venue: Big Data Institute (NDM), Old Road Campus OX3 7LF
Venue Details: Seminar room 0
Speaker: Casey Humbyrd (Assistant Professor and Chief of the Foot and Ankle Division, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine)
Organising department: Ethox Centre
Organiser: Christa Henrichs (Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities)
Part of: Ethox Centre Seminars
Booking required?: Required
Booking email: weh@bdi.ox.ac.uk
Audience: Public
Editor: Christa Henrichs