Medical Ethics
- Robert M. Veatch, PhD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
In the field of medical ethics, a year is such a thin sliver of time that the events capturing attention are to some extent accidents of history. Medical ethics, like the more general problems of ethics (of which it is a part), is best perceived from a perspective of centuries rather than months. Even so, several events of the past year have been of compelling interest to people concerned with problems of ethics in medicine. These issues have pressed themselves alike on scholars working in the field, on clinicians struggling with decisions in their daily practice, on administrators in professional and government organizations, and on people trying to be responsible patients.
Decisions for Incompetent Patients Late in 1977 the Massachusetts Supreme Court issued a written opinion explaining why it had intervened to order physicians to stop treating Joseph Saikewicz.1 Saikewicz was a 67-year-old man suffering from acute myeloblastic monocytic
Footnotes
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Member, editorial board, The Journal.
