The New Medical Ethics: Sacrificing the Individual to Society

The New Medical Ethics: Sacrificing the Individual to Society

Dr. Paul Hsieh describes a new breed of doctor  being groomed to carry out the sweeping health care laws and regulations soon to be passed by ObamaCare's159- odd new federal boards, commissions, task forces, bureaus, etc. 

"Most Americans are familiar with the traditional version of medical ethics, in which a doctor’s primary responsibility is to his patient. As Dr. Jane Orient explains, “Traditionally, medicine is practiced by physicians, one patient at a time…. The standard of care is the Oath of Hippocrates: providing treatment for the good of each patient according to the best of the doctor’s ability and judgment.”

In traditional medical ethics, a doctor’s primary responsibility is to tell his patients the truth and to treat his patients according to his best honest judgment, skill, and ability.

But a new form of medical ethics is being taught in medical schools that tells doctors to place the needs of “society” ahead of individual patients. At best, it forces doctors to juggle the truth and the interests of their patients alongside “social” considerations. At worst, it will give them license to sacrifice their professional integrity (and their patients’ interests) in the name of “society.”

In 2002, the American College of Physicians proposed a charter in which the three guiding ethical principles for physicians would be: patient welfare, patient autonomy, and “social justice.” In 2007, the AMA ITME (American Medical Association Initiative to Transform Medical Education) reported on the importance of training medical students to be better advocates for “social justice,” and proposed changes in the medical school admissions criteria and curriculum to address this perceived inadequacy.

As a result, medical schools are now increasingly admitting students based not on competence in the sciences, but rather on their commitment to “social accountability.” Medical school ethics courses are thus increasingly emphasizing “social justice” over traditional notions of ethics — or the individual patient’s welfare. But “social justice” is frequently just a euphemism for a socialist political agenda of leftist politics, redistribution of wealth, and heavy state controls over the marketplace...

Under ObamaCare, when similarly trained doctors have to choose between practicing in their patient’s medical interests or in the political interests of their government paymasters, which side will they choose? And will you want this new breed of doctor taking care of you when you’re sick?"

Read the whole thing here.