Medical Ethics and the Law

Medicine, as a learned profession, has traditionally insisted that the conduct of physicians be governed by its own code of professional ethics. Increased government regulation of the practice of medicine, however, has largely substituted external, governmental regulation for earlier ethical constraints. Government regulations have been imposed both in response to greater risks in the practice of medicine and in consequence of ever greater government funding of health care. Though regulations reflect a contemporary consensus on ethical attitudes, their promulgation has narrowed the exercise of the physician's independent ethical judgment. While the physician is increasingly subject to legal requirements in his practice and in such areas as informed consent, the use of human subjects in clinical research, genetic and biological research, and the management of the dying patient, his ethical sensitivity in complying with such requirements is still essential for the protection of patients.