In Reply.
—Dr Ring heralds the first step for introducing the patient-physician covenant into the national health care debate.
The next step is securing endorsement of the patient-physician covenant by as many of organized medicine's associations, societies, schools, and institutes as are willing to go on record for the ethical position of medical care of patients' precedence over the business of medicine.
The step beyond is encouraging every US practitioner to witness to the patient-physician covenant and assembling their names as a manifesto for the moral position of the profession.
The last step is sharing the content, process, and goal of the patient-physician covenant, empowered by the witnessing of physicians with the public, civic leaders, and health industry decision makers. By taking these steps the medical profession ensures sustained attention to the full dimensions of quality medical care, including lasting recognition of patients' dignity, inalienable presence of professional vocation, inescapable
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