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How far does a doctor's ‘duty of care’ go?
Author(s) -
Torda A.
Publication year - 2005
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/j.1445-5994.2005.00829.x
Subject(s) - duty , medicine , craft , duty of care , scope (computer science) , value (mathematics) , nursing , family medicine , law , political science , computer science , history , programming language , archaeology , machine learning
It is a long‐standing tradition in medicine that doctors have an ethical duty to care for all patients who fall within the scope of their skill base. This duty reflects the value system of many doctors and the type of typical dedication to their craft that has long been expected and given. The modern doctor, however, may have other additional roles – such as those of parent, researcher, businessperson and many others. What about the duties that accompany these other activities and what if these duties come into conflict with the duty to care for patients? How does a doctor decide how far the duty to care for patients extends? This article explores this question of duty and discusses how the notion of the traditional doctor's duty to care may need to be amended in light of the kinds of lives that doctors now lead. (Intern Med J 2005; 35: 295–296)