Bioethics and the use of social media for medical crowdfunding
- PDF / 531,970 Bytes
- 5 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 39 Downloads / 228 Views
DEBATE
Open Access
Bioethics and the use of social media for medical crowdfunding Brenda Zanele Kubheka1,2
Abstract Background: Social media has globalised compassion enabling requests for donations to spread beyond geographical boundaries. The use of social media for medical crowdfunding links people with unmet healthcare needs to charitable donors. There is no doubt that fundraising campaigns using such platforms facilitates access to financial resources to the benefit of patients and their caregivers. Main text: This paper reports on a critical review of the published literature and information from other online resources discussing medical crowdfunding and the related ethical questions. The review highlighted the benefits of crowdfunding as well as the under-exploration of the risk of having patients’ desires and human rights undermined during online fundraising campaigns. Majority of these campaigns get initiated on behalf of the patients, especially the very sick and dependant. The ethical questions raised relate to the voluntariness of informed consent and the possibility of patients being used as a means to an end. Vulnerability of patients may expose them to coercion, undue influence, manipulation, and violation of their human rights. The success of these campaigns is influenced by the digital skills, pre-existing social networks and, the emotional potency. Healthcare is a public good, and online market forces should not determine access to essential health services. The benefits of crowdfunding cannot be subverted, but it can perpetuate unintended injustices, especially those arising from socio-economic factors. Conclusions: Policymakers ought to monitor the utilisation of crowdfunding sites to identify policy failures and unmet essential health care needs responsible for driving individuals to use these platforms. The upholding of human rights and the fundamental respect of the individual’s wishes is a moral imperative. The need for an ethics framework to guide different stakeholders during medical crowdfunding needs further examination. Keywords: Medical crowdfunding, Justice, Social media, Vulnerability, Privacy, Ethics, Undue influence
Background The use of social media as a communication and a transactional tool has grown significantly in recent years. Social media presents new opportunities, including digitised and globalised charity activities like crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is defined as the raising of funds from a large pool of donors for specific initiatives through an online public appeal [1–3]. Medical crowdfunding is the practice of using websites and social media platforms to Correspondence: [email protected] 1 School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa 2 Health IQ Consulting, Johannesburg, South Africa
raise funds from donors to cover expenses directly or indirectly related to medical care [2, 4, 5]. The use of social media for crowdfunding raises moral questions, especially for donations to cover expenses related to me
Data Loading...
