With A Loud Ethics Voice:"Physicians Are Always Physicians" (2)

More of My Sincere Rant





I wrote about this issue yesterday to a bioethics listserv of which I am a subscriber. One of the ethicists on the listserv wrote back

"So, the challenge I post to this group is to argue

'against' the notion that the physicians who participate in interrogations

are not physicians

per se, but rather should be construed as hostile interrogators (or

enemy combatants) to whom the standards duties of medical

professionalism (e.g., confidentiality, beneficence, nonmalfeasance,

etc.) do not apply" That's the point I am and I think the NEJM authors are

making. Those physicians in the military who are participating in this manner

are violating their duties of medical professionalism since they are still

physicians.



I have never heard that it was the duty of a physician to go into

poverty but I understood it was the duty of a physician to maintain the moral

integrety, whether treating patients or not, which is set by his/her profession.

And physicians are penalized, as an example, by having their licenses revoked

for personal or legal misbehavior even when not directly related to the medical

care of a patient.



I can't believe that there is lack of consensus amongst those in the

profession of medicine or those on the sidelines such as the ethicists or the

general public that it is acceptible for physicians to maintain a Jekyl and Hyde

posture depending on who is requesting their services.



The responsibilities of America in Iraq will continue on.. the "war" on

terrorism will continue on.. there will still be persons confined in

Guantanamo Bay indefinitely and unless the government's and military mindset regarding

physicians is changed, there will always continue the misuse of physicians. I

have always felt that if society wants to have euthanasia, if society needs

to have a death warrent signed or execution completed, if society needs

investigation of the mental state of a criminal, if society needs special assistance

in military interrogation, let society select, train and give power to

technicians for each of the needs but let the physicians behave and do what they have

been doing all these many centuries.



We should all accept the decision of what society-- people, including

us, want of our doctors. We should actively encourage maintaining the

professional ethics and discourage those who would "use" doctors for their own

important but non-humanitarian objectives. I think that professional ethics and medical organizations not just mumble medical ethics but proceed promptly with a loud

ethics voice (through newspapers, TV, radio, communication to

government,legislatures and state medical boards) that physicians are always physicians and that

any other definition is morally unacceptable. And I think the time to start is

now.



Of course, what may have happened in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay is being

investigated but that should not deter us all from simply reasserting the

ethical definition of a physician. ..Maurice.