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Medical Ethics

Understand medical ethics with this simple guide to the four pillars of ethics and three ethical frameworks that apply to Medicine.

You Guide To Medical Ethics

• Understand the four pillars of medical ethics
• See how to apply them to ethical dilemmas
• Learn about other ethical concepts
• Get tips for discussing ethics at your interview

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You need to understand medical ethics and be ready to answer ethics questions or tackle MMI stations that focus on this topic. This guide outlines the four pillars of medical ethics and introduces three ethical frameworks that you should know about.

Ethics in Medicine

Medical ethics describes the moral principles by which a Doctor must conduct themselves. You need to understand the concept of medical ethics when you’re applying for Medical School, but you aren’t expected to be an expert.

It’s worth being aware that medical ethics is a changing ideal. Something that might have been considered ethical 30 years ago may not be today – and what we think is ethical right now may change in the future.

Why Is Medical Ethics Important?

Doctors deal with life or death decisions every day and it is vital to have a universal framework to help make these choices. The decisions you make must always have the patient as the focus.

Four Pillars of Medical Ethics

The four pillars of medical ethics are:

• Beneficence (doing good) : e.g. You have just finished your shift as a resident doctor on the ward and your colleague taking over is stuck in traffic, meaning they will be an hour late. Beneficence dictates that you stay on the ward for an extra hour to ensure the patients are safe until your colleague arrives and can take over.
• Non-maleficence (to do no harm) : e.g. A patient is requesting antibiotics for an infection that you suspect is viral. Non-maleficence dictates that you do not prescribe antibiotics as the patient will not benefit and may be at risk of developing resistance in the future due to inappropriate usage.
• Autonomy (giving the patient the freedom to choose freely, where they are able) : e.g. You are an oncologist and your patient has diagnosed breast cancer and needs a mastectomy in order to survive. You give them all of the information about the surgery including the risks and benefits and they decide not to go ahead with it. According to autonomy, given the patient has capacity to make the decision, you should respect their decision.
• Justice (ensuring fairness) : e.g. You are a dermatologist. Justice dictates that you must learn how different skin conditions present on every skin colour to ensure that patients of different races do not receive different standard of care.

You can use the four pillars as your infrastructure for any ethical question that you are asked at interview, and it’ll impress your interviewer if you reference which pillars you are basing your answer on.

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Further Concepts in Medical Ethics

In some scenarios it may be helpful to develop your ethical arguments with further theories alongside the four pillars of medical ethics. Some well-known theories are as follows: 1.  Consequentialism: “The ends justify the means’, meaning whether something is ethically right is dependent on the outcome. e.g. You are a surgeon and you are about to anaesthetise a patient with a terminal illness for an operation, when they ask “am I going to be okay?”. Consequentialism dictates that it is okay for you to tell them they will be fine as this will not change the outcome, even though lying is not a moral action.

2. Utilitarianism: Actions that cause the most happiness and pleasure for the most amount of people are ethical, and actions that cause unhappiness or harm or not. This theory is based on trying to better society as a whole and not the individual. e.g. There is a common ethical problem that demonstrates utilitarianism well. A train is about to run over five people tied to the tracks. You have the choice to pull a lever and change the tracks so that it runs over one person tied to the tracks in the other direction. The ethical problem is that while changing tracks will save four lives it requires an active decision. Utilitarianism says that changing the tracks in the correct ethical decision as it is more beneficial to save more lives.

3. Deontology: The stark difference between right and wrong, also known as duty- based ethics. Deontology contradicts consequentialism in that it doesn’t matter what the outcome is if something is inherently unethical. e.g. If we consider the same example from part i, deontology dictates that it is fundamentally unethical to lie, so the surgeon should tell the patient the truth that they are going to die.

Generally speaking, consequentialism may be the most relevant guide to thinking about the broad aims of healthcare – and deontology-based guidance is the one most commonly seen in Medicine.

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How To Develop Medical Ethics Knowledge

One of the best ways to develop your understanding of medical ethics is to practice analysing situations using ethical frameworks and ideologies. It’ll impress your interviewer if she can look at a scenario through the lenses of multiple different ethical theories.

Make sure you stay up to date with the latest health news – and see how these ethical frameworks apply to what’s currently in the headlines as interviewers with favour real-life dilemmas over imaginary scenarios.

Medical Ethics Examples

At Medical School interviews, medical ethics is a big part of the selection process. It’s highly likely that you’ll be asked ethics questions or face an MMI station designed to test your understanding of these concepts.

There are multiple real life examples where medical ethics is important to consider and have even played a role in litigation in some unfortunate circumstances. Some key topics include:

• The Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans cases
• Medicinal cannabis
• The handling of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Organ donation

Interviewers may choose to ask you directly about previous cases and will expect you to know the basic details of what occurred. Along with the topics listed above ensure you have reviewed any well-known court cases where medical negligence and ethics plays a key role.

When you answer ethics questions, you don’t have to list each of the four principles of ethics and outline these concepts – instead, pick a couple that are really relevant to show the interviewer that you’re aware of medical ethics in general.

Remember- in an interview scenario you only have to give a final opinion if asked. “Do you agree with abortion” and “Discuss the ethically argument for and against abortion” are two very different questions and it’s safest not to give an opinion unless you need to. If you must, most answers are valid as long as they are backed up with the relevant ethical framework.

Further Reading

The following books involving medical ethics will be useful to read in your medical school interview preparation: – My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi – Medical Ethics: A Very Short Introduction by Tony Hope

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Medical Ethics - Free Essay Samples And Topic Ideas

Medical Ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines ethical principles and moral or ethical problems that arise in a medical environment. Essays on medical ethics could delve into various ethical dilemmas faced by healthcare professionals, the principles guiding medical ethics like autonomy, beneficence, and justice, and how these principles apply in real-world clinical settings. Discussions might also cover controversial medical practices, the impact of legislation and policy on medical ethics, and the changing ethical landscape in light of technological advancements in medicine. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about Medical Ethics you can find at Papersowl. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

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Euthanasia: is it Ethical

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End of Life Ethical Issues

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Abortion and Adoption

Abortion is not as simple as walking into a medical office and having the procedure performed. Although Roe v. Wade made abortion legal in the United States in 1973 women often have to deal with judgment from others including not only protestors but significant others and family members, choosing between abortion and adoption, emotional stress possibly from the reason they are needing an abortion, physical complications, as well as state governments trying to take away their right to have an […]

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“The desire for parents to be involved in important decisions in their children’s ` lives are understandable, however parental protectiveness could trump a person’s right to her own body and her own future.” (Valenti, 2016). According to Merriam-Webster, abortions are the termination of a pregnancy after accompanied by, resulting in, or closely followed by the death of the embryo or fetus. In most scenarios, women undergo this procedure because they were not financially stable, or experienced sexual harassment in their […]

Learner Record

The suitable plan from the learning was that health officials should form a clinical ethics that has unique parameters and a district focus. For unstable it is noted that the ethics concepts have respect for authority and should express in the individual law. Each of this observation. However, it is also noted that the law can be resolved at a clinical level. The second part learned was on the clinical ethics. Clinical ethics is defined as the methodology for considering […]

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Medical ethics

Aji markose, ramesh krishnan, maya ramesh.

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Address for correspondence: Dr. Aji Markose, E-mail: [email protected]

Received 2016 Apr 6; Revised 2016 Apr 28; Accepted 2016 May 6.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Mutual trust and relationship between doctors and patients is an important factor of treatment plan. Changing trends in medical field does affect this relationship. This article reviews the basic code of conduct for every medical practitioner.

KEY WORDS: Consent, law, medical ethics, medical records

The issues in medical ethics often involve life and death. Serious health issues are raised over rights of patient, informed consent, confidentiality, competence, advance directives, negligence, and many others.

Ethics deals with the right choices of conduct considering all the circumstances. It deals with the distinction between what is considered right or wrong at a given time in a given culture. Medical ethics is concerned with the obligations of the doctors and the hospital to the patient along with other health professionals and society.

The health profession has a set of ethics, applicable to different groups of health professionals and health-care institutions. Ethics is not static, applicable for all times. What was considered good ethics a hundred years ago may not be considered so today. The hospital administrator has an obligation to have a clear understanding of its legal and ethical responsibilities.[ 1 ]

Law and Ethics

Law is an obligation on the part of society imposed by the competent authority, and noncompliance may lead to punishment in the form of monetary (fine) or imprisonment or both. There are two kinds of laws mainly, statutory law and judgment law.[ 2 ]

“Ethics” is concerned with studying and/or building up a coherent set of “rules” or principles by which people ought to live. It is the social value which binds the society by uniform opinion/consideration and enables the society to decide what is wrong and what is right. It is the science of morale concerning principle of human duty in the society.[ 3 ]

Duties and Responsibilities of the Physician

A physician shall uphold the dignity and honor of his/her profession.

The prime object of the medical profession is to render service to humanity; reward or financial gain is a subordinate consideration. A physician should be instructed in the art of healing.

No person other than doctor having qualification recognized by the Medical Council of India/State Medical Council is allowed to practice modern system of medicine or surgery.[ 1 ]

Maintaining Good Medical Practice

The principal objective of the medical profession is to render service to humanity with full respect for the dignity of profession and man. Physicians should improve knowledge and skills and should make these available to patients and colleagues.

Membership in medical society – physician should affiliate with associations and societies and involve in the active functioning of these bodies.

A physician should participate in professional as part of continuing medical education programs for at least 30 h every 5 years organized by reputed professional academic bodies.[ 4 ]

Maintenance of Medical Records

Every physician should maintain medical records of his/her patients for 3 years from the date of commencement of the treatment in a standard pro forma.

If any request is made for medical records either by patients/authorized attendant or legal authorities involved, the same may be duly acknowledged and documents shall be issued within 72 h.

A registered medical practitioner shall maintain a register of medical certificates giving full details of certificates issued.

Efforts shall be made to computerize medical records for quick retrieval.[ 1 ]

Display of Registration Numbers

Every physician shall display the registration number accorded to him/her by the State Medical Council/Medical Council of India in his/her clinic and all his/her prescriptions, certificates, money receipts given to his/her patients.

Every physician should prescribe drugs with generic names and should ensure that there are rational prescription and use of drugs.[ 1 ]

Exposure of Unethical Conduct

A physician should expose without fear or favor, incompetent or corrupt, dishonest or unethical conduct on the part of members of the profession.[ 5 ]

Payment of Professional Services

The personal financial interests of a physician should not conflict with the medical interests of the patients. A physician should announce his/her fees before rendering his/her service and not after the treatment is underway.[ 6 ]

Evasion of Legal Restrictions

The physician shall observe the laws of the country in regulating the practice of medicine. He should cooperate with observance and enforcement of sanitary laws and regulations in the interest of public health.[ 1 ]

Medicolegal Cases

Attending doctor can decide further investigations required by the law enforcing agencies in accordance with the prevailing law of the land, but the treating doctor decides the admissibility of the case.[ 1 ]

Duties and Responsibilities of the Doctor

Compulsory duties.

Notification of births and deaths

Notification of notifiable diseases to the appropriate authorities

Reporting of cases of poisoning

Reporting of suspected causes of death

Reporting of cases covered under the privileged communication

Responding to call for emergency, military services.

Voluntary duties

To treat and to continue to treat and maintain the professional secrets of the patients

To obtain consent of the patients for medical examination

To obtain informed consent before any procedure

To issue medical certificate, fitness certificate, death certificate, vaccination certificate, or certificate of disabilities

To conduct postmortem examination as per the requirement and request from appropriate authority

To inspect prisons

To attend cases of accidents and medical emergencies

To conduct medicolegal examinations.[ 1 ]

It is an act of voluntary agreement between two parties; in medical care, it is the patient and the doctor. The consent is of two types.

Implied consent

The consent is not written, when a patient submits to health care agencies for medical examination or treatment. Patient attending the OPD of the hospital for consultation and treatment does not require written consent unless some complicated procedures are performed.

Informed consent

It may be oral or written, mostly written for future references. Informed means that the patient or his/her attendant understands the mode of treatment or procedure, and only after understanding it fully, the patient or attendant has signed. The legal age for giving consent in India is 12 years. In sterilization, all consents should be taken from the partner also.

In simple terms, informed consent can be defined as an instrument of mutual communication between doctor and patient, with an expression of authorization/permission/choice by the latter for the doctor to act in a particular way.[ 6 ]

Consent not Required

When the patient is unconscious, no attendant is there to give consent and delay can be dangerous for the patient.

Medicolegal cases brought by police.[ 1 ]

Refusal of Treatment

Medical Council of India is of the opinion that there is no provision in the law which prevents the doctor attending to seriously injured and accidental cases before the arrival of the police or registering the case and completing other formalities.

There are legal frameworks for treating someone who refuses treatment: The common law and the statutory law. Common law is more informatively known as the “doctrine of necessity” and statutory law is based on acts of parliament.[ 7 ]

Law of Torts

The Law of Tort can be is derived from the word tortus and torts can be defined as any wrong doing to a person, for which a civil case can be lodged. It is generally injury to persons, usually arising out of an accident.

Performing an operation without medical indication, leaving a forceps or gauze inside the abdomen during surgery come under this.[ 8 ]

Unethical Acts

Advertising: A physician alone or in conjunction with others cannot make advertisements. A medical practitioner can make a formal announcement in press regarding starting of practice, change of type of practice, changing address, temporary absence from duties, and resumption of practice

Printing of self-photograph in letterhead or sign board

Running an open medical shop

Rebates and commission

Practice of euthanasia.[ 1 ]

The following acts of commission or omission on the part of a physician constitute professional misconduct rendering them liable for disciplinary action

Not maintaining medical records for 3 years

Not displaying registration number in clinic and prescriptions

Sex determination tests

Contravening drugs and cosmetics act

Contribute to lay press articles which advertise themselves

Using unusually large sign board

Disclosing secrets of patients learned by profession unless medically or legally needed

Publishing photographs or reports without permission

Claiming as a specialist when you do not have a special qualification

Violation of existing ICMR guidelines

In vitro fertilization without consent from female patient, spouse, and donor

Teaching faculty or physician posted in medical college found absent on more than two occasions during duty hours.[ 1 ]

The doctor–patient relationship is one based on mutual trust and respect between the two parties. However, the rapid changes in the medical field and the corporatization of health-care system have strained the age-old good relations between the patient and the treating physician/surgeon. The legal, ethical, and moral liabilities of the doctors are enshrined in the Hippocratic Oath that we take when being ordained into the medical fraternity and we should try to uphold them.[ 9 ]

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

• 1. Code of Ethics Regulations. 2002. [Last accessed on 2016 Apr 10]. Available from: http://www.mciindia.org/RulesandRegulations/CodeofMedicalEthicsRegulations2002.aspx .
• 2. Singh MM, Garg US, Arora P. Laws applicable to medical practice and hospitals in India. Int J Res Found Hosp Healthc Adm. 2013;1:19–24. [ Google Scholar ]
• 3. [Last accessed on 2016 Apr 10]. Available from: http://www.soas.ac.uk/cedep-demos/000_P563_EED_K3736-Demo/module/pdfs/p563_unit_01.pdf .
• 4. [Last accessed on 2016 Apr 10]. Available from: http://www.gmc-uk.org/Good_medical_practice___English_1215.pdf_51527435.pdf .
• 5. Yamey G, Roach J. Witnessing unethical conduct: The effects. West J Med. 2001;174:355–6. doi: 10.1136/ewjm.174.5.355-a. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
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Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Medical Practice & Treatment — Medical Ethics

Essays on Medical Ethics

Diving into the complex and critical field of medical ethics, our collection of medical ethics essay samples offers a deep well of resources for students aiming to explore the ethical dilemmas faced by healthcare professionals and patients alike. Whether you are seeking guidance, inspiration, or concrete examples to frame your own essay, our carefully curated essays provide a diverse range of perspectives on medical ethics issues. Engage with our collection to enrich your understanding and approach to writing about medical ethics.

The Importance of Medical Ethics

Medical ethics encompasses the moral principles that guide healthcare professionals in their practice, ensuring the dignity, rights, and safety of patients are upheld. Essays on medical ethics delve into topics such as patient confidentiality, informed consent, end-of-life care, and the equitable distribution of healthcare resources. By exploring these essays, students can gain insights into the critical importance of ethical decision-making in medical practice and the impact these decisions have on individuals and society.

Highlights of Our Essay Collection

Our selection of medical ethics essays covers a wide array of ethical issues within the healthcare sector. From theoretical analyses of ethical frameworks to case studies highlighting real-world ethical dilemmas, our collection aims to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the depth and breadth of medical ethics. Each essay serves as a valuable tool for sparking ideas, framing arguments, and understanding the complexities of ethical considerations in healthcare.

How to Leverage Our Essays

• Inspiration and Ideas: Use our essays to find unique angles and topics for your medical ethics essay.
• Research Aid: Employ the essays as a starting point for deeper research, helping to identify key issues, debates, and ethical principles.
• Structural Blueprint: Analyze how our essays are structured to effectively argue and present ethical considerations and resolutions.
• Citation Examples: Learn from the sourcing techniques used in our essays to strengthen your essay's credibility and academic integrity.

The field of medical ethics is both challenging and essential, requiring a delicate balance between medical advancements and moral considerations. Our collection of medical ethics essay samples is designed to support students in navigating these complex ethical landscapes. By engaging with our essays, you can develop a nuanced understanding of medical ethics, enabling you to contribute thoughtful and informed essays to the academic discourse. Let our collection guide you through the intricacies of medical ethics, enhancing your research, writing, and critical thinking skills.

Begin your journey into the ethical dimensions of healthcare by exploring our medical ethics essay samples today. Allow these essays to inspire and guide you as you craft your own contributions to the vital discussions surrounding medical ethics.

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• Medical ethics: four...

Medical ethics: four principles plus attention to scope

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• Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 1NA.
• Accepted 16 March 1994

The “four principles plus scope” approach provides a simple, accessible, and culturally neutral approach to thinking about ethical issues in health care. The approach, developed in the United States, is based on four common, basic prima facie moral commitments - respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice - plus concern for their scope of application. It offers a common, basic moral analytical framework and a common, basic moral language. Although they do not provide ordered rules, these principles can help doctors and other health care workers to make decisions when reflecting on moral issues that arise at work.

Nine years ago the BMJ allowed me to introduce to its readers 1 an approach to medical ethics developed by the Americans Beauchamp and Childress, 2 which is based on four prima facie moral principles and attention to these principles' scope of application. Since then I have often been asked for a summary of this approach by doctors and other health care workers who find it helpful for organising their thoughts about medical ethics. This paper, based on the preface of a large multiauthor textbook on medical ethics, 3 offers a brief account of this “four principles plus scope” approach.

The four principles plus scope approach claims that whatever our personal philosophy, politics, religion, moral theory, or life stance, we will find no difficulty in committing ourselves to four prima facie moral principles plus a reflective concern about their scope of application. Moreover, these four principles, plus attention to their scope of application, encompass most of the moral issues that arise in health care.

The four prima facie principles are respect for autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice. “Prima facie,” a term introduced by the English philosopher W D Ross, means that the principle is binding unless it conflicts with another moral principle - if it does we have to choose between them. The four principles approach does not provide a method for choosing, which is a source of dissatisfaction to people who suppose that ethics merely comprises a set of ordered rules and that once the relevant information is fed into an algorithm or computer out will pop the answer. What the principles plus scope approach can provide, however, is a common set of moral commitments, a common moral language, and a common set of moral issues. We should consider these in each case before coming to our own answer using our preferred moral theory or other approach to choose between these principles when they conflict.

Respect for autonomy

Autonomy - literally, self rule, but probably better described as deliberated self rule - is a special attribute of all moral agents. If we have autonomy we can make our own decisions on the basis of deliberation; sometimes we can intend to do things as a result of those decisions; and sometimes we can do those things to implement the decisions (what I previously described as autonomy of thought, of will or intention, and of action). Respect for autonomy is the moral obligation to respect the autonomy of others in so far as such respect is compatible with equal respect for the autonomy of all potentially affected. Respect for autonomy is also sometimes described, in Kantian terms, as treating others as ends in themselves and never merely as means - one of Kant's formulations of his “categorical imperative.”

In health care respecting people's autonomy has many prima facie implications. It requires us to consult people and obtain their agreement before we do things to them - hence the obligation to obtain informed consent from patients before we do things to try to help them. Medical confidentiality is another implication of respecting people's autonomy. We do not have any general obligation to keep other people's secrets, but health care workers explicitly or implicitly promise their patients and clients that they will keep confidential the information confided to them. Keeping promises is a way of respecting people's autonomy; an aspect of running our own life depends on being able to rely on the promises made to us by others. Without such promises of confidentiality patients are also far less likely to divulge the often highly private and sensitive information that is needed for their optimal care; thus maintaining confidentiality not only respects patients' autonomy but also increases the likelihood of our being able to help them.

Respect for autonomy also requires us not to deceive each other (except in circumstances in which deceit is agreed to be permissible, such as when playing poker) as the absence of deceit is part of the implicit agreement among moral agents when they communicate with each other. They organise their lives on the assumption that people will not deceive them; their autonomy is infringed if they are deceived. Respect for patients' autonomy prima facie requires us, therefore, not to deceive patients, for example, about their diagnosed illness unless they clearly wish to be deceived. Respect for autonomy even requires us to be on time for appointments as an agreed appointment is a kind of mutual promise and if we do not keep an appointment we break the promise.

To exercise respect for autonomy health care workers must be able to communicate well with their patients and clients. Good communication requires, most importantly, listening (and not just with the ears) as well as telling (and not just with the lips or a wordprocessor) and is usually necessary for giving patients adequate information about any proposed intervention and for finding out whether patients want that intervention. Good communication is also usually necessary for finding out when patients do not want a lot of information; some patients do not want to be told about a bad prognosis or to participate in deciding which of several treatments to have, preferring to leave this decision to their doctors. Respecting such attitudes shows just as much respect for a patient's autonomy as does giving patients information that they do want. In my experience, however, most patients want more not less information and want to participate in deciding their medical care.

Beneficence and non-maleficence

Whenever we try to help others we inevitably risk harming them; health care workers, who are committed to helping others, must therefore consider the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence together and aim at producing net benefit over harm. None the less, we must keep the two principles separate for those circumstances in which we have or recognise no obligation of beneficence to others (as we still have an obligation not to harm them). Thus the traditional Hippocratic moral obligation of medicine is to provide net medical benefit to patients with minimal harm - that is, beneficence with non-maleficence. To achieve these moral objectives health care workers are committed to a wide range of prima facie obligations.

We need to ensure that we can provide the benefits we profess (thus “professional”) to be able to provide. Hence we need rigorous and effective education and training both before and during our professional lives. We also need to make sure that we are offering each patient net benefit. Interestingly, to do this we must respect the patient's autonomy for what constitutes benefit for one patient may be harm for another. For example, a mastectomy may constitute a prospective net benefit for one woman with breast cancer, while for another the destruction of an aspect of her feminine identity may be so harmful that it cannot be outweighed even by the prospect of an extended life expectancy.

The obligation to provide net benefit to patients also requires us to be clear about risk and probability when we make our assessments of harm and benefit. Clearly, a low probability of great harm such as death or severe disability is of less moral importance in the context of non-maleficence than is a high probability of such harm, and a high probability of great benefit such as cure of a life threatening disease is of more moral importance in the context of beneficence than is a low probability of such benefit. We therefore need empirical information about the probabilities of the various harms and benefits that may result from proposed health care interventions. This information has to come from effective medical research, which is also therefore a prima facie moral obligation. The obligation to produce net benefit, however, also requires us to define whose benefit and whose harms are likely to result from a proposed intervention. This problem of moral scope is particularly important in medical research and population medicine.

One moral concept that in recent years has become popular in health care is that of empowerment - that is, doing things to help patients and clients to be more in control of their health and health care. Sometimes empowerment is even proposed as a new moral obligation. On reflection I think that empowerment is, however, essentially an action that combines the two moral obligations of beneficence and respect for autonomy to help patients in ways that not only respect but also enhance their autonomy.

The fourth prima facie moral principle is justice. Justice is often regarded as being synonymous with fairness and can be summarised as the moral obligation to act on the basis of fair adjudication between competing claims. In health care ethics I have found it useful to subdivide obligations of justice into three categories: fair distribution of scarce resources (distributive justice), respect for people's rights (rights based justice) and respect for morally acceptable laws (legal justice).

Equality is at the heart of justice, but, as Aristotle argued so long ago, justice is more than mere equality - people can be treated unjustly even if they are treated equally. 4 , 5 He argued that it was important to treat equals equally (what health economists are increasingly calling horizontal equity) and to treat unequals unequally in proportion to the morally relevant inequalities (vertical equity). People have argued ever since about the morally relevant criteria for regarding and treating people as equals and those for regarding and treating them as unequals. The debate flourishes in moral, religious, philosophical, and political contexts, and we are no closer to agreement than we were in Aristotle's time.

Pending such agreement health care workers need to tread warily as we have no special justification for imposing our own personal or professional views about justice on others. We certainly need to recognise and acknowledge the competing moral concerns. For example, in the context of the allocation of resources conflicts exist between several common moral concerns: to provide sufficient health care to meet the needs of all who need it; when this is impossible, to distribute health care resources in proportion to the extent of people's needs for health care; to allow health care workers to give priority to the needs of “their” patients; to provide equal access to health care; to allow people as much choice as possible in selecting their health care; to maximise the benefit produced by the available resources; to respect the autonomy of the people who provide those resources and thus to limit the cost to taxpayers and subscribers to health insurance schemes. All these criteria for justly allocating health care resources can be morally justified but not all can be fully met simultaneously.

Similar moral conflicts arise in the context of rights based justice and legal justice.

Personal decision making

The best moral strategy for justice that I have found for myself as a health care worker is first to distinguish whether it is I or an organisation, profession, or society itself that has to make a decision. For example, “how should I respond to a particular patient who wants an abortion?” is distinct from, “what is this hospital's organisational view on abortion?” and “what is the medical profession's collective view on abortion?” and “what is society's view as expressed in law and practice?”

Firstly, for decisions that I must take myself I must try to exclude decisions that have no moral basis or justification. Neither pursuit of my own self interest - for example, accepting bribes from patients, hospitals, or drug manufacturers - nor action that discriminates against patients on the basis of personal preference or prejudice can provide a just or morally acceptable basis for allocating scarce health care resources or for any other category of justice. Moreover, it is not my role as a doctor to punish patients; withholding antibiotics from smokers who do not give up smoking or refusing to refer heavy drinkers with liver damage induced by alcohol for specialist assessment on the grounds that they are at fault is not a just or morally acceptable basis for rationing my medical resources.

Secondly, I should not waste the resources at my disposal; so if a cheaper drug is likely to produce as much benefit as a more expensive one I should prescribe the cheaper one. Cost and its team mate opportunity cost are moral issues and central to distributive justice. If I believe, however, that an expensive drug is clearly and significantly better for my patient than a cheaper alternative and I am allowed to prescribe it then I believe that I should do so. Thus, like many British general practitioners, I try oxytetracycline first when treating acne, but if it does not work well I prescribe the more expensive minocycline; for depression I usually start with tricyclic antidepressants, but if they do not work well or the side effects are unacceptable I prescribe the new and expensive 5- hydroxytryptamine uptake inhibitors.

Thirdly, I should respect patients' rights. For example, my disapproval of a patient's lifestyle would not be a morally acceptable justification for refusing to provide a certificate of sickness if he or she cannot work because of sickness. I have no special privilege as a health care worker, however, to create societal rights for my patients. For example, while I might think that all my unemployed patients should receive sickness benefit, in Britain they have a right to receive it only if they cannot work because of sickness; I have a right, therefore, to provide a certificate of sickness only if this is the case.

Fourthly, I ought to obey morally acceptable laws. Thus, even though I may disapprove of breaking a patient's confidence, if he or she has one of several infectious diseases I am legally obliged to notify the relevant authorities. If I believe that the law is morally unjustified I am morally entitled to break the law; but this gives me no legal entitlement to break the law, and I should be prepared to face the legal consequences of disobeying it. I should also decide exactly what I mean by a morally unjustified law. I suggest, though here do not argue, that it is the processes through which laws are enacted that confer moral legitimacy not the content of the laws. Thus if a law is enacted through a democratic political system - and hence one that fundamentally respects autonomy - which represents conflicting views within its population and makes laws on the basis of certain common moral values that reflect the four principles then that law is morally acceptable, and prima facie we are morally required to obey it.

Organisational, professional, and societal decisions

My role in taking decisions about justice that are organisational, professional, or societal should only be as a member of the relevant organisation, profession, or society. It is therefore morally consistent to pursue at different levels objectives that are mutually in-consistent. The medical directorate at the hospital where I work may have decided to prohibit the prescription of a particularly expensive drug. As a member of that directorate I may have argued in favour of prescribing the drug in special cases, but my arguments were rejected. It is morally proper for me as a clinician to accept the directorate's decision and act accordingly even when faced with an exceptional case in which I believe the expensive drug would be preferable. It is also morally legitimate for me to point to such cases (“shroud waving”) in my political role as a member of a democratic society, arguing, for example, for more resources for health care than, say, for defence.

As members of society we are still feeling our way even at the level of defining what the competing moral concerns of justice are. We must be particularly wary of apparently simple solutions to what have been perceived as highly complex problems for at least 2500 years. For example, populist solutions in distributive justice such as have occurred in Oregon in the United States 6 and technical and simplistic economic solutions such as the system of costed quality adjusted life years (QALYs) 7 are tempting in their definitiveness and simplicity; they fail, however, to give value to the wide range of other potentially relevant moral concerns. Until there is far greater social agreement and understanding of these exceedingly complex issues I believe it is morally safer to seek gradual improvement in our current methods of trying to reconcile the competing moral concerns - to seek ways of “muddling through elegantly” as Hunter advocates 8 - than to be seduced by systems that seek to convert these essentially moral choices into apparently scientific, numerical methods and formulas.

As Calabresi and Bobbitt suggested in the 1970s, rationing scarce resources that prolong life and enhance health often entails tragic choices - choices between people and between values. Societies seek strategies to minimise the destructive effect of such choices, including tendencies to change their strategies over time. 9 Calabresi suggests that we are like a juggler trying to keep too many balls in the air; like the juggler we must do our best to improve our juggling skills to keep more balls in the air for more of the time and to avoid letting any ball stay on the ground for too long. We must accept, however, that in the context of competing and mutually incompatible claims there will always be some balls on the ground. Moreover, we should not be surprised that there will always be some people dissatisfied after justice has been done because by definition not everyone's claims can be met.

We may agree about our substantive moral commitments and our prima facie moral obligations of respect for autonomy, beneficence, non- maleficence, and justice, yet we may still disagree about their scope of application - that is, we may disagree radically about to what or to whom we owe these moral obligations. Interesting and important theoretical issues surround the scope of each of the four principles. We clearly do not owe a duty of beneficence to everyone and everything; so whom or what do we have a moral duty to help and how much should we help them? While we clearly have a prima facie obligation to avoid harming everyone, who and what count as everyone? Similarly, even if we agree that the scope of the principle of respect for autonomy is universal, encompassing all autonomous agents, who or what counts as an autonomous agent?

Who or what falls within the scope of our obligation to distribute scarce resources fairly according to the principle of justice? Is it everyone in the world? Future people? Just people in our own countries? And who or what has rights? Do plants have rights? Does the environment have rights? Does a work of art have rights? Do animals have rights and if so, which animals? Conversely, against whom may holders of rights claim the correlative moral obligation? Similar questions concern the scope of legal justice.

Scope for health care workers

Fortunately for health care workers some of these issues of scope have been clarified for them by their special relationship with their patients or clients. In particular, the controversial issue of who falls within the scope of beneficence is answered unambiguously for at least one category of people: all health care workers have a moral obligation to help their patients and clients. Patients or clients fall within the scope of the health care workers' duty of beneficence. This fact is established by the personal and professional commitments of the health care professionals and their organisations - they all profess a commitment to help their patients and clients, and to do so with minimal harm. This commitment is underwritten by the societies in which they practise, both informally and through legal rules and regulations that define the health care professionals' duties of care.

Two issues of scope are of particular practical importance for health care workers. The first is the question of who falls within the scope of the prima facie principle of respect for autonomy. The second is the question of what is the scope of the widely acknowledged “right to life”; who and what has a right to life?

Obviously the scope of the principle of respect for autonomy must include autonomous agents - we cannot respect the autonomy of a boot or anything else that is not autonomous. But who or what counts as an autonomous agent? When we disagree about whether or not to respect the decision of a girl of 14 to take the oral contraceptive pill we are in effect disagreeing about the scope of application of the principle of respect for autonomy.

Similar questions about the scope of respect for autonomy arise in other paediatric contexts, in the care of severely mentally ill or mentally impaired people, and in the care of elderly people who are severely mentally impaired. Some patients clearly do not fall within the scope of respect for autonomy; newborn babies, for example, are not autonomous agents as autonomy requires the capacity to deliberate. But 7 year olds usually can deliberate to a degree. How much capacity for logical thought and deliberation and what other attributes are required for somebody to be an adequately autonomous agent? Possible other, necessary attributes include an adequately extensive and accurate knowledge base, including that born of experience and of accurte perception, on which to deliberate; an ability to conceive of and reflect on ourselves over time, both past and future; an ability to reason hypothetically - “what if” reasoning; an ability to defer gratification for ourselves as an aspect of self rule; and sufficient will power for self rule.

However these philosophical questions are answered, health care workers increasingly acknowledge that the autonomy of even young children and severely mentally impaired people should prima facie be respected unless there are good moral reasons not to do so. Moreover, those reasons will depend highly on the context; a young child or a severely mentally impaired person may not be autonomous enough to have his or her decision to reject an operation respected but be autonomous enough to decide what food to eat or clothes to wear. When patients who are not adequately autonomous for all their decisions to be respected make decisions that seem to be against their interests then important issues arise about who should be regarded as appropriate to make decisions on their behalf and about the criteria that they should use to do so.

The second important issue of scope for health care workers concerns the “right to life.” Who or what has this right to life? To answer the question we have to determine what is meant by the right to life. Specifically, is it simply the right not to be unjustly killed or does it also include a right to be kept alive? The scope of the first right will clearly be greater than the scope of the latter: we have prima facie moral obligations not to kill all people but we have obligations to keep alive only some people. Even with the first definition of the right to life (a right not to be unjustly killed) a question of scope arises; although all people clearly fall within its scope, do (non-human) animals? And what do we mean by people? In response to this last question much debate, often extremely acrimonious, occurs in health care ethics over the right to life of human embryos, fetuses, newborn babies, and patients who are permanently unconscious or even brain dead.

It is salutary to reflect that these contentious issues are not about the content of our moral obligations but about to whom and what we owe them - that is, they are questions about the scope of our agreed moral obligations. Our answers are reasoned and carefully argued but deeply conflicting, either religiously or philosophically. Such disagreement about scope does not justify accusing those who disagree with us of bad faith or incompatible moral standards; in principle it is open to resolution within our shared moral commitment.

The four principles plus scope approach is clearly not without its critics. And the approach does not purport to offer a method of dealing with conflicts between the principles. But I have not found anyone who seriously argues that he or she cannot accept any of these prima facie principles or found plausible examples of concerns about health care ethics that require additional moral principles.

The four principles plus scope approach enables health care workers from totally disparate moral cultures to share a fairly basic, common moral commitment, common moral language, and common analytical framework for reflecting on problems in health care ethics. Such an approach, which is neutral between competing religious, political, cultural, and philosophical theories, can be shared by everyone regardless of their background. It is surely too important a moral prize to be rejected carelessly or ignorantly; for the sake of mere opposition; or for the fun of being a philosophical “Socratic gadfly.”

• Beauchamp TL ,
• Childress JF
• Calabresi G ,

Essay on Medical Ethics

Students are often asked to write an essay on Medical Ethics in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on Medical Ethics

What is medical ethics.

Medical ethics is a set of rules that doctors and healthcare workers follow to give the best care to patients. It’s like a guide for making sure everyone is treated fairly and kindly in medical situations.

Respecting Patients

One big part of medical ethics is respecting patients. This means doctors must listen to patients, keep their information private, and let them make choices about their own health.

Doing No Harm

Doctors promise to not hurt patients. They must be careful and avoid causing any harm while trying to help. This is a very old rule in medicine, known as “do no harm.”

Medical ethics also means being fair. Doctors should treat everyone the same, no matter who they are. They must give the same high-quality care to all patients.

Staying Honest

Honesty is key in medical ethics. Doctors should always tell the truth about treatments and health. This helps patients trust them and make good decisions about their care.

250 Words Essay on Medical Ethics

Medical ethics is about right and wrong in medicine. It guides doctors, nurses, and other health workers to make good choices for their patients. Imagine being sick and needing someone to trust with your health. That’s where medical ethics comes in. It helps make sure everyone is treated fairly and with respect.

Rules for Doctors

Doctors follow special rules called the Hippocratic Oath. This promise makes them agree to help patients, not harm them, and keep their information private. It’s like a secret promise to take good care of people who are sick.

Keeping Secrets

One big rule in medical ethics is privacy. This means doctors should keep what they know about your health just between you and them. It’s important because it helps you feel safe to tell your doctor everything they need to know to help you.

Choosing Fairly

Sometimes, doctors have to make tough choices, like who gets a new medicine first when there’s not enough for everyone. Medical ethics helps them decide in a way that’s fair and doesn’t pick favorites.

Respecting Choices

Patients have the right to make choices about their own health. Doctors should listen and respect what you want, even if it’s different from what they think is best. It’s like being the boss of your own body.

In conclusion, medical ethics is about making good, fair, and respectful choices in healthcare. It’s a set of rules that help doctors and patients work together to make the best decisions.

500 Words Essay on Medical Ethics

What are medical ethics.

Medical ethics are rules that help doctors and health workers make good choices when they care for patients. These rules are important because they guide professionals to do what is right and fair for everyone. Imagine you’re playing a game. Rules in a game help you understand what you can and cannot do. Similarly, medical ethics are like rules for doctors and nurses, telling them how to do their job well and treat patients kindly.

Respect for Patients

One big rule in medical ethics is to respect patients. This means doctors should listen to what patients want for their health. For example, if a patient doesn’t want to take a certain medicine, the doctor should respect their choice. It is also about keeping secrets. When you tell a doctor something private, they should not tell anyone else. This is called patient confidentiality.

Doing Good and Not Harming

Doctors should always try to help and not hurt their patients. This idea is often said in Latin as “Primum non nocere,” which means “First, do no harm.” It’s like when you’re playing with friends; you want to have fun but not hurt anyone. Doctors must make sure that the treatments they give do not cause more problems than they solve.

Fairness is also a key part of medical ethics. This means that doctors should treat everyone equally. It doesn’t matter who the patient is, where they come from, or how much money they have. Everyone should get the same chance to receive good health care. Think of it like sharing toys; everyone should get a turn.

Telling the Truth

Telling the truth, also known as honesty, is very important in medical ethics. Doctors should always give clear and truthful information to their patients. If a treatment has risks, they should explain those risks. It’s like when a friend asks you if their drawing is good; you should be kind but also tell the truth if there is something they can improve.

Keeping Promises

Doctors should keep their promises. If they say they will do something, like call you with test results, they should do it. This builds trust between doctors and patients. It’s like when you promise to give back a borrowed pencil; your friend trusts you to do what you said.

Improving Themselves and the Profession

Finally, doctors should always try to get better at what they do. They should learn new things and improve their skills. This helps them take better care of their patients. It’s similar to practicing a sport or a musical instrument; the more you practice, the better you get.

In conclusion, medical ethics are a set of rules that help doctors and health workers make the best decisions for their patients. They include respecting patients, doing good, being fair, telling the truth, keeping promises, and always trying to improve. These rules make sure that when you go to a doctor, you are treated with care, honesty, and respect.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

If you’re looking for more, here are essays on other interesting topics:

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Journal of Medical Ethics

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Patient safe care as a moral imperative: The mandate of medical ethics

• PUBLISHED 18 hours ago
• CONTENT TYPE New
• SUGGESTED AUDIENCE Health and care staff, Patient safety leads, Researchers/academics
• Health inequalities
• Communication
• Decision making
• Information sharing

Dan Cohen is an international consultant in patient safety and clinical risk management, and a Trustee for Patient Safety Learning. In this blog, Dan discusses the four principles of medical ethics, specifically focusing on how each applies to providing safe patient care.

Our moral imperative

Having spent more than 50 years as a doctor, I have come to appreciate that everything in my, and our, professional life comes back to the basics of why we entered the healthcare professions in the first place.

We genuinely wanted to help people, to keep them healthy and to return them to their maximum healthy state when they became ill. We wanted to serve our patients by being helpful. This has been our moral imperative and our beacon.

This moral imperative is the reason we get up every day and go about our jobs, often working under stressful circumstances confounded by environmental stressors, liabilities related to human factors and process inefficiencies. All of these factors have an impact on our effectiveness in clinical settings, with stress and burnout also trickling over into our personal lives.

Providing healthcare is challenging, especially when so much of our work environment is seemingly out of our control. Yet we keep coming back for more because we really care.

Healthcare professionals may be viewed as special and unique people by many in society, sometimes even put on a pedestal. But really, they are mostly ordinary women and men, drawn by an important calling with highly specific and serious responsibilities. What we do is special and unique!

Healthcare professionals try to provide the highest quality care, focusing on optimal clinical outcomes while avoiding mistakes, errors and harm to patients. We also acknowledge that what matters most to patients influences our approach to their care. How we satisfy our moral imperative is governed substantially by adhering to the medical ethics; i.e., the behaviours, actions and deeds that are held within the moral imperative. Behaviours that do not align with the moral imperative are considered unethical.

The principles of medical ethics

The principles of medical ethics have been best characterised by four foundational pillars, first elucidated by Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress in 1979 in their seminal book, Principles of Biomedical Ethics .[1] These principles remain as relevant today as they were when first described. I will discuss briefly these foundational pillars, specifically focusing on how each applies to providing safe patient care.

Principle 1: Respect for patient autonomy

Providing healthcare should be a collaborative process with professionals and patients working together to achieve the best outcomes. Therefore, patients’ needs, wants and expectations should be foremost. Optimal outcomes, especially in outpatient care, cannot be achieved without patient engagement, as the patients are generally the implementers of care, certainly after they leave their doctors’ surgeries. Patients are entitled to be informed about the risks and benefits of interventions that may cause them harm, surgical interventions most notably, and this requires discussions and sharing of information to ensure patients are appropriately involved in decision making.

The practice of obtaining signed patient consent for surgical procedures acknowledges this. However, consent is often obtained in a 'slap-dash' way by having patients sign forms that may be incomplete or incompletely understood by patients.

The informed consent process, as it has been operationalised, may satisfy legal requirements but is often flawed as it may not generally include a thoughtful doctor to patient discussion of risks and benefits.

Respect for patient autonomy absolutely requires adherence to the principle of candour in healthcare. If mistakes are made in providing care, patients deserve to have these mistakes discussed with them in a timely fashion. This generally means shortly after the mistake has been discovered and is especially crucial with mistakes that have caused harm or may cause delayed harm. Until patients release us from our responsibilities as their care provider, we must remain committed to satisfying their healthcare needs. This cannot be accomplished if we are not honest and candid when discussing what has happened. There is now good evidence that candid discussions decrease the frequency of medical negligence claims and lawsuits and the size of healthcare injury claims paid.[2] [3] Caring for patients means respecting them and sharing information with them, whether that's for the better or worse.

Principle 2: Beneficence

Healthcare professionals are required to provide care that is intended to be beneficial to patients. It may seem counterintuitive to say this, but what this really means is that the care provided should be evidence-based and comply with the highest standards designed to achieve best outcomes. There are certainly instances where evidence is lacking or controversial or where doctors and/or professional groups may disagree regarding the best care and how to achieve best outcomes.

Yet each healthcare professional must aspire to provide the best possible care, even in the face of uncertainty. And if there is uncertainty, then that uncertainty also should be discussed with our patients.

This principle requires that healthcare professionals be willing to discuss "alternative approaches" to standard healthcare therapeutics if patients bring these options into the discussion, including the use of acupuncture, homeopathic and/or herbal products, and other approaches that patients may wish to consider. After all, patient autonomy must be respected, so professionals, regardless of their own opinions regarding these interventions, must be willing to listen and provide relevant information in a compassionate way. It is important to point out to patients when some of these alternative approaches may be harmful in certain situations. For example, certain herbal treatments may pose risks for patients taking oral anticoagulants.

Healthcare professionals must share their concerns about what risks are known and mention when risks are not known.

I have come across this dilemma in my own practice and I would be honest and say something like: “ I cannot say with confidence that what you wish to do will be safe or unsafe, because I simply do not know the answer, although I will look into this more thoroughly. However, if I cannot find evidence of safety, then I cannot fully support you using 'XYZ' because I will be concerned that it may be harmful. The choice is always yours, and I respect your decision even if it is not one that I would make myself".                                                                    

Principle 3: Nonmaleficence

This principle, which some have interpreted simply as "do no harm" is actually more complex than that.

By their very nature, some of our recommendations cannot always avoid harm. So, by extension "do no harm” really means to avoid unnecessary harm to the extent that this is possible.

For example, for a patient undergoing surgery, the surgeon will use a scalpel to perform the surgery. Hence the surgeon must actually harm the patient in order to perform the surgery, and that harm could lead to further harm (e.g., bleeding, infection, etc.) that was never the intention of the intervention. In the same way, chemotherapy to treat cancer may carry substantial risks of harm because of medication side effects that cannot always be avoided. This is the reason that informed consent must address the risks and benefits of the treatment, and professionals must make sure their patients fully understand these risks and benefits.

Nonmaleficence means to avoid unnecessary harm whenever possible.

Principle 4: Justice

Sadly, even in our caring professions, not all of our patients are treated fairly and equitably. The principle of justice requires that all patients be treated without reference to their genetic, biological, social and economic backgrounds, gender or gender identity, and political views. The impacts of prejudices and biases against individuals of differing ethnicities, skin colours, social classes, political views, and coincidental health and lifestyle issues have adversely influenced both access to healthcare services and the quality and timeliness of healthcare services provided, possibly resulting in adverse healthcare outcomes.[4] [5] [6] For example, individuals with obesity and smoking related comorbidities and illnesses are often viewed as "responsible" for their health challenges and subject to biases, whereas recreational middle distance runners are rarely viewed negatively for their anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries or joint osteoarthritis.

Healthcare professionals thus have a moral obligation to acknowledge this vulnerability in themselves and to never let these biases or prejudices interfere with our provision of care. Our prejudices may well harm patients and/or prevent them from achieving optimal healthcare outcomes. This is particularly an issue when professionals are working under stress and task saturation, when we tend to take shortcuts in diagnosis and may rush to solutions or be less sympathetic and compassionate to those who are "not like us". Disparities in care are dangerous variables when providing safe, high-quality healthcare for everyone.

The principles of biomedical ethics apply directly to the fundamental moral imperative to provide the highest quality care while avoiding mistakes, errors and harm to patients. We must ensure that what matters most to patients influences our approach to their care and, thus, to adherence to this moral imperative.

The foundational pillars of medical ethics also require professionals to be honest with patients when things go wrong and to focus on sustaining the relationships between patients and their care providers. Therefore, healthcare professionals are advised that before walking into their clinics, surgeries, hospitals, etc., they should stop and pause momentarily to reflect upon who they are as professionals, the moral imperative they work under and the professional behaviours that must align with the moral imperative. We must recognise the challenges of working in a complex environment and be especially careful. Stress degrades behaviour for all of us and, from time to time, I have been as much at fault as anyone. It’s called being human.

Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

• Beauchamp TL, Childress JF. Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 8th Ed. Oxford University Press, USA, 2019.
• Kachalia A, Kaufman SR, Boothman R, et al. Liability claims and costs before and after implementation of a medical error disclosure program. Annals of Internal Medicine 2010; 153(4): 213–21.
• Kachalia A, Sands K, Van Niel M, et al. Effects Of A Communication-And-Resolution Program On Hospitals’ Malpractice Claims And Costs. Health Affairs 2018; 32(11): 1836–44.
• Lavizzo-Mourey RJ, Besser RE, Williams DR. A Half-Century of Progress in Health: The National Academy of Medicine at 50: Understanding and Mitigating Health Inequities — Past, Current, and Future Directions. N Engl J Med 2021; 384:1681–4.
• Sabin JA. Tackling Implicit Bias in Health Care. N Engl J Med 2022; 387:105–7.
• Fernandez A, Chin MH. Keep Your Eyes on the Prize – Focusing on Health Care Equity. N Engl J Med 2024; 390:1733 – 6.

About the Author

International consultant in patient safety and clinical risk management, senior healthcare executive with extensive leadership experience, former US Department of Defense (DoD) physician executive with career culminating as Chief Medical Officer/Executive Medical Director for the DoD TRICARE health plan currently providing health care to over 9 million beneficiaries world-wide. Most recently served as Chief Medical Officer for Datix where he championed the company’s comprehensive patient safety thought leader efforts internationally through innumerable conference presentations, publications and commentaries.

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