Promises to keep: medical graduates and their oaths
A survey of oaths taken by medical students in the United States and Canada in 2014 and 2015 suggests that doctors are beginning their career...
Are doctors betraying their Oath for profit?
An Australian rheumatologist and an orthopaedic surgeon have penned a scathing condemnation of modern medicine as “not fit for purpose” and a danger to human...
Updating the Hippocratic Oath
An oath at the University of Pittsburgh champions diversity and being an ally with the poor and marginalisedThe Hippocratic Oath seems to be evolving faster...
Should doctors manage the pandemic? No, says French philosopher
Bernard-Henri Lévy, France’s rock-star public intellectual, has harsh words for health professionals Earlier this year the coronavirus pandemic caught Bernard-Henri Lévy, France’s rock-star public intellectual,...
Should lockdown protesters forfeit their right to medical care?
Some bioethicists have little sympathy for them Protests in US state capitals against coronavirus lockdowns have become a familiar feature of nightly news bulletins. In...
Scientists lament Trump Administration’s ban on foetal tissue research
Others say that numerous non-controversial alternatives exist The outcome of this year’s American elections is of great interest to medical scientists who work with foetal...
The complicity of health and medical personnel in post-9/11 torture is a stain on my profession
A consultant psychiatrist at Freedom from Torture decries the 'shameful complicity' of health professionals. As the American psychologist and architect of the Bush-era torture programme,...
In defence of conscientious objection
A leading ethics journal has published a feature issue on conscientious objectionA newly released edition of the journal Perspectives in Medicine and Biology focuses on...
We need a ‘privacy bill of rights’, says psychiatrist
Loss of control over personal data can be ‘destabilising’ for some people Bioethics needs to promote privacy, not only of patients’ data but also in...
Back to the source: the Hippocratic Oath re-examined
For the fundaments, it’s still relevant Big Stock Photo Over the centuries the Hippocratic Oath has expressed the ideals of the medical profession, although nowadays...
Doctors’ well-being is suffering because of ‘moral injury’
Similar symptoms to PTSD soldiers In trying to understand post-traumatic stress disorders amongst soldiers, psychologists have developed the notion of “moral injury”. This is an...
Does medicine have a telos?
A new edition of a prominent journal takes aim at teleology in medico-ethical theory. Medical practice has changed rapidly in recent decades. Debates challenging essentialist...