Category: Medical Ethics

The discussion we’ve had since Friday regarding the Bush administration’s latest foray into theocracy brought up some interesting points. We discussed implications of the draft regulations including likely limitations on access to safe and effective birth control. But there is another issue here that disturbs me greatly.

Last week we talked a little bit about medical ethics. I’m not an Ethicist (Mike! Are you reading?), but I am a “practical ethicist”, as are all health care providers. How do ethics inform the discussion of what care we can or cannot provide?
Continue reading “Conscientious objector or deserter?”

What could be more important than a good old-fashioned flame war? I’ll get to that in a moment, so please stick with me.

The recent imbroglio between some of our doctor bloggers and non-physician scientists got me thinking (so it couldn’t be all bad).

As a quick summary, PhysioProf of the DrugMonkey blog used an incident of a doctor committing battery on a patient as a generalization regarding surgeons, all doctors, and medical education. Many of us who are actually doctors and physician educators took issue with that. PhysioProf apologized, but made it clear that s/he still feels that there is a valid point here, that doctors are bred to be arrogant, etc.

Let’s move on from the fray, and dig through the battlefield relics that may help illustrate larger issues.
Continue reading “Scene III, wherein we move on to more important things”