ETHICAL ISSUES IN MEDICINE

Often, it is reported that negligence on the part of doctors resulting in fatalities, delay in providing life-saving medical support, delay in admitting seriously injured in accidents, etc. Any loss of life results in irreplaceable losses of various kinds like financial and emotional, to the near and dear ones of the dead.

It is true that doctors are not Gods, but only mere mortals. It is a profession which should be taken only if one has the mentality of providing service to the needy. But today, the profession has lost its godly face and has become overly commercial. What happened to the sacred Hippocratic Oath taken while passing the MBBS degree promising to treat the ill to the best of one’s ability? Medical ethics should be made compulsory in the medical curriculum.

There many bioethical issues which need harmonization efforts at the global level so that a comprehensive protocol / recommendations are brought out for acceptance and implementation by the appropriate national bodies like Medical Council of India. Some of the major ethical issues that need immediate attention are:
1. Clinical research activities, using new drugs or carrying out new procedures on patients without their as well as their relative’s knowledge. The side effects should be fully explained.
2. Use of unnecessary radiological procedures. Radiation dose to the patients should be optimized in consultation with the medical physicists. The side effects of the exposures to high levels of radiation should be explained to the patients.
3. Surgical and other intrusive procedures should be carried out only by the suitably qualified and authorized medical personnel, that too only if it is necessary. Commercial angle should not be the guiding force.
4. Sexual exploitation of female patients by medical and paramedical personnel.

It is planned to collect responses and comments from the readers on this all important issue, analyze and publish it for the information of everybody.