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Addiction medicine ethics: relapse, no lapse and the struggle to treat addicts like everyone else
Author(s) -
Douglas Charles
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
internal medicine journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 1444-0903
DOI - 10.1111/imj.13559
Subject(s) - medicine , addiction , harm , do no harm , psychiatry , medical ethics , addiction medicine , alternative medicine , social psychology , pathology , psychology
Two case studies are presented as a focus for discussion of ethics in addiction medicine. The first is that of the alcohol‐dependent patient who receives a liver transplant. The second is that of a heroin‐dependent patient who continues to inject himself while in a general medical ward. I make some comments about the obligations of doctors to treat those who cause harm to themselves as they would treat those who are ‘not responsible’.