Amarillo Globe-News
June 24, 2002
By Dr. Ted Nicklaus
The ethics of medical care has gained increasing public attention as scientific and technological advances force us to face the difficult decisions affecting life and death.
“Medical care” deals with treating individual patients or specific medical conditions. In contrast, “health care” … refers to the delivery of medical care in society.
Health care is usually discussed in terms of economics, logistics and politics. The emotion of such discussions tend to drown out ethical viewpoints, and the ethics of health care is seldom considered publicly. But, health care in this country has become disjointed and frustrating for both patients and those who provide medical care. For many, the current deficiencies of health care delivery have impaired their health and even determined life and death. It is time to include ethics in the health care debates.
It is time to recognize that our system is inappropriately expensive, fragmented, unjustly distributed and frustrating to both providers and patients. The frustrations are most evident when the logistics and decisions are profit-driven and politically protected. In any discussion of reform, ethical considerations should not be ignored.
Discussions and study of ethics in the medical care of individuals has significantly benefited patients and physicians alike during the last several decades.
We can no longer exclude ethical perspectives in our discussions of providing health care for our citizens. To do so would defeat the very purpose of medical service in society.
Comment: Although these excerpts from Dr. Nicklaus’ article emphasize the importance of ethics, not only for individual patients but also for the entire health care system, the full article expands on this topic and should be read in its entirety. It should be downloaded and distributed widely.