0
ARTICLE |

The New Medical Ethics

Aaron Spital, MD; Max Spital, MD
Arch Intern Med. 1986;146(8):1631-1635. doi:10.1001/archinte.1986.00360200209042.
Text Size: A A A
Published online

To the Editor.  —In their recent editorial, "The New Medical Ethics,"1 Drs Sider and Clements have decided that part of the medical ethics movement is an "empty shell"; that doctors are now morally bound in the Procrustean bed of informed consent and patient rights; and that the patient does not know what is good for him. While it is natural to be concerned with new developments, our complaint is that the authors, in listing their ten concerns, make many unfounded assumptions.Drs Sider and Clements assume that there are, a priori, right and wrong courses of action, "relative goodness of choice"; and the right medical action is that which will help heal the tangible physical ailment. Unfortunately, the physician cannot always know what is in the best interest of his patient. There are often several alternative courses that may be taken, as medicine is as much art as science. Sometimes

Sign In to Access Full Content

Don't have Access?

Register and get free email Table of Contents alerts, saved searches, PowerPoint downloads, CME quizzes, and more

Subscribe for full-text access to content from 1998 forward and a host of useful features

Activate your current subscription (AMA members and current subscribers)

Purchase Online Access to this article for 24 hours

Figures

Tables

Interactive Graphics

Video

Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature

Use interactive graphics and maps to view and sort country-specific infant and early dhildhood mortality and growth failure data and their association with maternal

References

Correspondence

CME
Accreditation Information
The American Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The AMA designates this journal-based CME activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM per course. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. Physicians who complete the CME course and score at least 80% correct on the quiz are eligible for AMA PRA Category 1 CreditTM.
Note: You must get at least of the answers correct to pass this quiz.
You have not filled in all the answers to complete this quiz
The following questions were not answered:
Sorry, you have unsuccessfully completed this CME quiz with a score of
The following questions were not answered correctly:
Commitment to Change (optional):
Indicate what change(s) you will implement in your practice, if any, based on this CME course.
Your quiz results:
The filled radio buttons indicate your responses. The preferred responses are highlighted
For CME Course: A Proposed Model for Initial Assessment and Management of Acute Heart Failure Syndromes
Indicate what changes(s) you will implement in your practice, if any, based on this CME course.
NOTE:
Citing articles are presented as examples only. In non-demo SCM6 implementation, integration with CrossRef’s “Cited By” API will populate this tab (http://www.crossref.org/citedby.html).
Submit a Comment

Some tools below are only available to our subscribers or users with an online account.

Sign In to Access Full Content

Related Content

Customize your page view by dragging & repositioning the boxes below.

Jobs