Lessons in medical ethics

2017

J. Charles Davis, “Medical Ethics in India,” in ed. Mathew Illathuparampil, Indian Moral Theology: Historical Studies and Future Prospects, Bengaluru: Dharmaram, 2017, 141-159.

Health is wealth" but in present world this wealth is completely transformed from the physical wealth to material wealth. Medical profession has long subscribed to a body of ethical statements developed primarily for the benefit of the patient. As a member of this profession, a physician must recognize responsibility to patients first and foremost, as well as to society, to other health professionals, and lastly to the self. Principle of medical ethics says that a physician shall be dedicated to providing competent medical care, with compassion and respect for human dignity and rights. But in reality, the facility of health care is still a distant dream for the common and poor people in India. Once medical profession was considered to be a noble profession and doctors were seen as God, but in today's greedy world, even doctors have turned materialistic, a doctor pays more attention to his fees rather than caring for a patient's life. In present paper an attempt has been made to examine the principles of medical ethics, role of a doctor in society and dilution in health care ethics by medical professionals. Some case studies of unethical medical practices have also been cited to fortify the fact that patients are only consumers for doctors.

IOSR-Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences, 2025

Medical ethics deals with the moral principle that doctors should adhere to in their transaction with patient, colleagues and the state. It concerns not only doctors but also patients and society. The core of medical ethics is doctor patient relationship. Ethics has been derived from Greek word ethikos which means theory of living. Ethics are needed in every aspect of life, including medical field which is most pious profession and is thought to be equivalent to God because both of them save many precious lives. There is ethical deterioration in every field of life, including the medical one which is being eroded at fast pace and needs to be strengthened on priority by various manoeuvres. The past place of placing doctors equivalent to God has changed to devil in the current era. The responsibility lies on both sides i.e. doctors and patients. The bond of trust between them has become very fragile and needs urgent corrective steps for rebuilding the trust as in the past. The concept of sympathy has to be changed empathy among medical practitioners where they can feel pain of patient and family members. On the other side confidence building measures should be taken to build trust of patient and treating team. It is not matter of days or months but will require persistent and continuous efforts for years but a good beginning can prove to be very vital. At least, we all will start thinking that corrective steps are required to build good bonding between the treating team, patients and their family members. It will prove to be mile stone in decreasing unwarranted litigation and stress level among all.

International Journal of Ethics Education, 2019

The formal oversight of medical education in India occurred with the promulgation of the Indian Medical Degrees Act in 1916. Despite an awareness of the need to train ethical doctors and the formal discussion of this as early as 1955, the formal teaching of medical ethics has been restricted to a few colleges as it has not been part of a mandated requirement. In August, 2019, all medical colleges in India will adopt a new Medical Council of India mandated curriculum. An embedded AETCOM (Attitude, Ethics and Communication) module across all years of training is a part of this curriculum and is the first attempt to introduce medical ethics uniformly in close to 500 medical colleges in the country. This paper traces the historical attempts to include medical ethics in medical education in India, and describes the current plan to implement ethics teaching in the undergraduate medical curriculum in India.

Journal of the Ceylon College of Physicians, 2019

Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, 2009

This study aimed to assess the knowledge of, and attitudes to, medical ethics among doctors in the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Imphal, Manipur. It also looked at the association between levels of knowledge and selected variables. A self-administered structured questionnaire was distributed to all doctors working in RIMS, Imphal between September and October 2007. 315 of 440 (71.6%) doctors contacted, responded. 62.2% of respondents (196) were below 35 years of age. 22.5% (71) were faculty members. 98.7% (311) had heard of the Code of Medical Ethics but only 188 (59.7%) had read it, even in part. 69.2% (218) felt that the undergraduate curriculum on medical ethics was not adequate. 10.5% (33) could describe what medical professionalism meant. Knowledge of medical ethics was higher among those who were over 35 years of age, those who graduated before 1999 and those having higher educational qualifications.

Indian journal of medical ethics

Education in ethics is now a formal part of the undergraduate medical curriculum. However, most courses are structured around principles and case studies more appropriate to western countries. The cultures and practices of countries like India differ from those of western countries. It is, therefore, essential that our teaching should address the issues which are the most relevant to our setting. An anonymised, questionnaire-based, cross-sectional survey of medical students was carried out to get a picture of the ethical problems faced by students in India. The data were categorised into issues related to professional behaviour and ethical dilemmas. Unprofessional behaviour was among the issues reported as a matter of concern by a majority of the medical students. The survey highlights the need to design the curriculum in a way that reflects the structure of medical education in India, where patients are not always considered socio-culturally equal by students or the medical staff. ...

A combination of moral principles and values that are applied to take judgements in medical education, practice, and research are termed as medical ethics. There have been other many traditional medical ethics guidelines brought about by Muslim Ishaq ibn Ali al-ruhawi wrote “the Conduct of physicians”, Jewish and Catholic scholastic thinkers over time. Ethics in modern medicine started way back in 18 century when Thomas Percival, a physician based in England, wrote a book on medical ethics and coined the terminology of medical ethics and medical jurisprudence. The medical profession should be viewed differently and a rethought on the ethical practices is the need of hour to make it an exciting and fulilling profession. A rethink on the status of modern medicine will certainly pave the way for obtaining speciic answers for many dilemmas in modern medicine including the best ethical codes and practices

Gazi Medical Journal, 2017

Medical Council of India has specified the various unethical acts and misconduct in 'Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics Regulations 2002'. Though medical ethics is not a separate subject, it is being taught as a part of Forensic Medicine in 2 nd MBBS. Every medical practitioner should be aware of these codes and should apply them in their daily practice. Medical students are the budding doctors of tomorrow. It is imperative that the medical students are also aware of these codes during their student days so that they can apply them in their future practice. So, the present study attempts to look for the awareness amongst the various years of MBBS students of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal about these codes. In our study it was found that the knowledge of medical ethics was more in 4 th year students in comparison to 2 nd year and 3 rd year students.

2014

1 Clinical Research Development Center, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran. 2 Ethics, Religion and Medicine Research Center, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran. 3 Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran. 4 Medical Ethics and History of Medicine Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. 5 Clinical Research Development Center, Qom University of Medical Sciences, Qom, Iran.