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> People often forget that the medical profession's highest priority isn't the health of you, the patient. If you were to grab a medical ethics book you will fi
by alphaoverlord 13y ago
> People often forget that the medical profession's highest priority isn't the health of you, the patient. If you were to grab a medical ethics book you will first be told that the well being of the population as a whole surpasses any individuals rights.
That is just not true. Completely, 100%, entirely false. In medical decision making, the principles of beneficence, malfeasance, and autonomy far outweigh the concept of social justice. As someone who works in the medical setting, hearing something like this stuns me.
- jessaustin 13y agoPerhaps ethical standards vary among different locations or specialties? That's certainly true in other fields besides medicine. Also, there is often a difference between stated ethical standards and the ethics implicit in common practice. In my observation, physicians are as a whole more ethical than are many other occupations. However, they're still human.
- carbocation 13y agoAlphaoverlord is 100% correct. While standards and norms may vary from place to place, the textbooks that I have read on medical ethics are in agreement. In my pre-medical, medical, and postgraduate-medical training, I have always been taught that my mandate is to do the right thing for the person sitting in front of me. This in itself can lead to population-level problems, but that is a separate issue (social justice, the 4th of the principles that alphaoverlord outlined). Also, a nitpick: it's nonmaleficence (doing no harm), not malfeasance.
- alphaoverlord 13y agohaha, good catch! thanks.