Is it ethical for medical doctors to strike, withholding even emergency care from patients?
Asked by
ibstubro (
18804)
November 30th, 2015
Just that was narrowly avoided today in Britain.
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4 Answers
Response moderated (Unhelpful)
It’s a direct violation of the vaunted Hippocratic oath for a doctor to withhold services for any reason other than harming the patient. Do physicians still swear the oath?
The strike action planned for today did not include emergency care, just routine and planned care. The two further days were chosen because the staffing levels on those days would be sufficient for emergency care to be given by senior doctors. My question is is it ethical to contract doctors to work long hours at weekends without extra pay while not being willing to work a 5 day week yourself?
I don’t know who is striking or why, but if doctors are striking for being extremely overworked and very long hours I am all for it if they have tried other means already. They have my health and life in their hands! It scares me that they might be extremely sleep deprived; more mistakes happen.
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