Medical Ethics A Guide to Students and Practitioners

The editor, believing that, "the trend of present-day medical teaching is in the direction of developing the theoretical at the expense of the practical," has compiled a book containing chapters by himself and eleven other eminent contributors which deal "with the doctor's general outlook on his professional life, and with all sorts of considerations, which, though little or nothing is said about them in the routine course of his training, may nevertheless have a profound influence upon his future career, and upon the success, in the best sense of the word, which he is likely to attain in the general handling of his patients." Such items as professional etiquette between physicians, the care of the dying, the doctor's duty to his church and his family, certain medical-legal problems, the ethical basis of experimental medicine, and the history of the Hippocratic oath are considered. The result is a good book, reading of which would be rewarding to any physician. Some of the chapters, such as the ones dealing with the General Medical Council of the United Kingdom and medical-legal matters, are not wholly applicable to practice in other countries. Also, the discussions of relations between family doctors and consultants are not entirely suited to practice in the United States where there seems to be less of a gap between the two kinds of practitioners than in Great Britain. Items of medical etiquette, such as avoidance of advertising, avoidance of public criticism of colleagues, the procedure for calling in a consultant, decision to carry out therapeutic abortions, etc., are dealt with in satisfactory fashion. The chapter on the doctor's responsibility to his family takes up only the liability of overlooking disease within his own household, but does not touch on the subtler and really more serious problem: how the busy doctor is to be a good husband and father. The chapters by Davidson and Batten, on 'What to Tell the Gravely Ill Patient,' and 'Management of the Hopeless Case,' are outstanding. They overlap a little but are thoughtful, generally in agreement, and obviously based on wide experience. IHere is an excerpt from Batten: