You use the tools you have. All medical precedent is based upon that, using the best tools of the day. However, the tools oncologists have are not guaranteed instantly fatal, and you know that.
I'm sure you also realize that surgery and even prescribing penicillin does harm -- the former to the body of the patient, the latter to the digestive tract as well as generating penicillin-resistant bacteria. Both of those options were exercised as far back as in Egyption times (eating moldy bread is a folk remedy.)
Are some of these tools brutal and nearly medieval? That's open for debate, but at least we don't bleed the patients anymore. ;-)
The point is, you do not get much more harmful than having knowingly killed your patient. It goes right off the scale there. I'm quite sure their chance of recovery at that point is nil. |
