Nonabandonment: and old obligation revisited

Article Abstract:

Nonabandonment of patients by their physicians may be a traditional ethical obligation, but it may not carry the weight of a principle that incorporates personalized, ethically responsive, and situation-oriented medical care. New interpretations of the ethic of nonabandonment may attempt to expand it to include care of the whole person and alternative theories of ethics that are thought to decrease the abstractness of principle-based ethics. Such alternative ethics theories may be part of the situational ethics trend, a trend which may discredit any moral structure other than the subjective desires of individual patients, physicians, or society. The new, enlarged definition of nonabandonment may actually dilute its purpose by trying to include too many other elements. Physicians may need to show more interest in their patients and be more sensitive to their lives, but these issues should not be subsumed by nonabandonment. New interpretations of nonabandonment may be developed to try to justify or even require assisted suicide and active euthanasia as being sensitive to what the patient needs or wants.

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Nonabandonment: a central obligation for physicians

Article Abstract:

Nonabandonment of patients by physicians may be a central ethic of medical care. Nonabandonment may have been underemphasized in the past, but it may be important now in defining the physician's commitment to the patient as a person and seeing that patient through times of health and illness, and even death. The ethic of nonabandonment may enable medicine to become more human and responsive to the real needs of patients. Medical care may be enhanced when provided in the context of a continuous, committed physician-patient relationship. Within such a context, the concept of healing may include working with severely, chronically ill patients and with those who are dying. Persons with leadership roles in the health care field may need to examine whether they are facilitating or obstructing continuous, caring physician-patient relationships.

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The patient-physician covenant: an affirmation of Asklepios

Article Abstract:

Overriding concerns about profits under managed care medicine may undermine the trusting relationship between doctor and patient. Doctors have formulated a document that states the role doctors should play in the changing medical environment under managed care. Doctors should use available resources wisely but should not need to make medical care decisions based on corporate profits or personal financial rewards. The doctors' primary concern should be the welfare of their patients built on a trusting relationship. Cost savings generated by wise use of available resources should help pay for access to medical care by the most needy. The American Board of Internal Medicine and the American College of Physicians have approved this document.

Editorial

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