Medical Ethics is an important area for everyone that works in the
medical field as well as the patients that are receiving medical
treatment. These are ethical statements that are adopted by the
American Medical Association as a standard of conduct and are set in
place for the benefit of the patient. Medical Ethics are not laws but
rather standards of conduct for a physician.
The
principles of medical ethics give guidelines on honorable behavior of a
physician. A physician’s first responsibility should always be to the
patient. While treating a patient compassion and respect must be used
while giving the best medical care that is available. A physician must
always be professional, honest and respect the law at all times.
Privacy must be maintained and a physician has a duty to respect the
rights of patients and colleagues and report any physicians that are
engaging in fraud or deception.
Medical Ethics also
safeguards the physician. It enables the physician to be able to choose
who they want to treat, who they want to associate with and what
environment they want to practice medicine in. The exception to this is
if it is an emergency situation. The physician has the freedom to
choose. Often times there may be a gray area in medical ethics due to
the increased government involvement and many court cases on
discrimination.
The government involvement also challenges
medical ethics on topics such as placebo surgery, assisted suicide,
abortion rights and research volunteers. What one seems as being
ethical may not be to another and that is where a lot of problems arise.
Another
area of medical ethics that one would not think was included is the
physician’s responsibility to participate in the community. This would
include activities to improve the community or better public health.
They need to show their support for all people to have medical care
available to them.