LESSON 1
Section I. THE NATURE OF ETHICS
1-1.
WHY ETHICS?
a. Introduction. Most of what your study as a radiographer (or any other health
care provider) is concrete, black and white. That is because the skills of an x-ray
technologist are based on science. There is, after all, a correct way to position a patient
for a chest x-ray, a proper way to insert the intravenous polygram (IVP) injection. But
besides the technical aspects of your job (the technology), there is another dimension to
health care, more related to the art than the science of healing, that is not so black and
white. That other dimension is based on caring and the values of health care. For
example, what is the correct way to handle patients when positioning them and project
both professionalism and compassion? (Professionalism is not just technically
competent, but responsible/serious, in control, and caring.) Are there some instances,
for example, when routine handling/ touching could be mistaken for fondling?
According to ethics teacher T. Roger Taylor, ethics teaches you "How to do the right
thing when no one is looking."1
(1) The case of the pornographic poses, cited below, is not hypothetical. It
occurred in a military hospital. Refer to the code of ethics adopted by the American
Registry of Radiologic Technologists and the American Society of Radiologic
Technologists (Appendix A) to determine which tenets of the code were violated. You
will see that the x-ray technologist violated principle four of the code by placing the
patient in the unseemly positions ("utilizes equipment and accessories consistent with
the purposes for which it has been designed."). However, he did adhere to principle
seven by not exposing the patient to unnecessary radiation ("limiting the radiation
exposure to the patient..."). The radiographer suffered reprisals, of course, for violating
the professional code of ethics.
THE CASE OF THE PORNOGRAPHIC POSES
An adolescent girl, sent to the x-ray department for an x-ray, was placed in a series of
questionable "pornographic" positions by the radiographer. These had nothing to do with the
x-ray that had been ordered by the physician. Fortunately, the x-ray technologist did not
compound the misdeed by actually taking the additional poses and exposing the young girl to
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