While I may consider myself to be an ethical practitioner, I am in imperfect member of the genus, Homo, practicing medicine in an imperfect world. I don’t commit Medicare fraud or lie to my patients. When I commit an error, I admit it. I often counsel patients against proceeding with endoscopic studies, because I don’t feel they are medically necessary. I do my best to keep my patients’ interests as my paramount concern. But the world of medicine doesn’t always have bright lines and borders to keep us confined to an ethical zone. Physicians and ethicists argue over where to draw these boundaries. What was regarded to be unethical 10 years ago has become standard medical operating procedure in many instances. Consider how the field of reproductive medicine has evolved. The definition of death has been relaxed in order to increase the human organ donor pool. We will surely see human cloning in our lifetime. Medical ethics is not easy to define. Community physicians like
MD Whistleblower presents vignettes and commentaries on the medical profession. We peek 'behind the medical curtain' and deliver candor and controversy in every post.