Divided loyalties for physicians: Social context and moral problems

Thomas H. Murray

Social Science & Medicine, 1986, vol. 23, issue 8, 827-832

Abstract: An examination of the notion of divided loyalties dilemmas in medicine, situated within their social contexts, yields insight into the contemporary social and moral position of medicine in the United States. In a review of the literature, the author identifies four concepts important to gaining an understanding of the position that divided loyalties play in medicine and the physician-patient relationship. After describing some of the situations in which these dilemmas affect physicians' responses to patients' health care needs, interests, and choices, the author argues that divided loyalties dilemmas are not rare, and will probably increase with the changes in U.S. medicine. Candor and awareness of the importance of the public belief in physician loyalty are seen as necessary in preventing these changes from becoming destructive of the physician-patient relationship.

Keywords: divided; loyalties; social; control; bioethics; medical; ethics; ethics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1986
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0277-9536(86)90281-9
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:23:y:1986:i:8:p:827-832

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().