On doing the right thing with medical knowledge

Now that I have been experimenting on myself in order to suppress my prostate cancer for the last 7 months and achieved an almost 50% reduction in my PSA where no reduction has occurred for me in the past, I struggle with a way to get my story out in a proper way.

Pursuant to that, I started researching the ethics of sharing medical knowledge, and the first article I came across that caught my eye was this:

Medical Research and the Golden Rule

Michael E. De Bakey, MD

I distill this work into the following: 1) do no harm to others, 2) do unto others as you might do for yourself, 3) use wisdom, logic, and reason, 4) avoid ignorance, misunderstanding, and jealousy, and 5) be guided by science, love, and compassion.

And so I look at what I am doing in light of Dr. De Bakey’s and his predecessor’s Golden Rule.

1. Do no harm to others

I am not telling anyone to do anything other than read my story.  Ask your physician to evaluate whatever that is in my story that you find interesting. I present the evidence that I lowered my PSA by almost 50% during that time.

2. Do unto others as you might do for yourself

I am the one who developed and performed an experiment on myself to save my prostate. I have been consulting with my primary care physician and my urologist every step of the way.

3. Use wisdom, logic and reason

 I choose to review as much of the latest scientific experimental data as I could, learned about the risks of toxicity and multi-drug interaction risks when I learned from my PCP that those two things were what to think about after I told him what I was doing.

4. Avoid Ignorance, misunderstanding, and jealousy

My story is knowledge-based, an effort to extract forward-thinking scientific knowledge and apply it to my situation. I attempt to avoid misunderstanding by saying I say I am no doctor, but an engineer and published researcher in another field who likes to think he has the ability to read the research work of others and glean some measure of knowledge from it.  I don’t feel any jealousy toward anyone.  If I detect jealousy, I will avoid it.

5. Be guided by science, love, and compassion.

I am studying the science and it certainly guides me.  I do enjoy learning new knowledge and have an intense interest in solving my own medical problem.  I am also very interested in sharing my knowledge with others and hope they can learn something that helps them decide for themselves their own course of action.

So at this point after this analysis, I feel I am on the right side of this Golden Rule.

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