Health Care Comes to Reality TV

Experts debate the ethics of a reality TV show that treats patients who are running out of medical options.

WebMD Feature

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

The world of reality TV just raised the bar -- moving from wife swapping and home building into the high stakes world of real-life medical care.

The new show -- ABC's Miracle Workers -- rolled out nationwide with this hefty promise: "When a person's life is on the line and doctors insist that nothing more can be done, it's time to turn to the Miracle Workers," says its promotional ads.

The show's premise: To showcase cutting-edge medical procedures through the eyes of the patients who experience them -- and in the process teach us a little something that might help solve some of our own health problems.

Ethics Issues

In the premier episode we meet a man blind since childhood who receives a cornea transplant and a woman disabled with back pain who receives a titanium disc implant. Not surprisingly, by show's end the blind man sees, and the disabled woman walks -- all thanks to the Miracle Workers.

But as warm and fuzzy as this sounds, some medical ethicists say this time Hollywood has gone one tinsel-tinged toe over the line.

"Should we give away refrigerators? Sure. Trips? Yeah. Fur coats? Who cares. But when we turn the quest for medical care into Queen for a Day, we have gone too far -- ethically. A show that gives out good medicine as a prize is immoral," says Arthur Caplan, PhD, chairman of the department of medical ethics at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in Philadelphia.

Getting good care, he adds, should be our right, not our privilege; as soon as we turn it into a privilege we run the risk of only a privileged few receiving it.

The show's executive producers Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank, don't see it quite that way.

"Just because we can't help everybody, does that mean we should help nobody? And if through helping a few people, the information we present can help many … then I think we are doing our job," says Falvey.

The Cost of the Cure

As anyone who's ever paid a doctor's bill can tell you, medical miracles don't come cheap. The producers say most of the patients had good insurance; when they didn't the show picked up the tab -- or got the hospitals or doctors to donate their services.

As good as this sounds, medical ethicist Celia B. Fisher, PhD, says it raises a big red flag.

"Is the payment that's promised contingent upon the patient's agreement to air the story? And even if it isn't, to what extent does the patient really understand that? Is there a sense within the informed consent that they are signing away their rights?" asks Fisher, director of Fordham University Center for Ethics Education.

Moreover, she says concerns are magnified if the procedure fails to deliver promised results.

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