By Matt Sloane
WebMD Health News
Dec. 22, 2014 -- Sometimes we forget that our doctors are not simply patient-care robots. They are human beings with feelings, families, and a deep-seated passion for their work.
Underneath a confident facade is someone just like you who has doubts, internal (and external) debates, and power limited to their abilities as a mere mortal.
To get an idea of some of the toughest ethical dilemmas doctors are facing, our sister site, Medscape, released its annual ethics report -- a survey of more than 21,000 doctors in the U.S. and Europe -- about their feelings on a variety of medicine’s toughest choices.
On the list: assisted suicide, abortion, patient confidentiality, and medical mistakes, along with more salacious things like whether it’s OK to date a patient.
Life and Death
Among the most difficult decisions for any doctor are those that deal with the life and death of a patient.
Of the doctors surveyed, 19% said they would give life-sustaining therapy to a patient even if they believed the efforts would be futile. But 46% said it would depend on the situation they were facing.
And 1 in 5 doctors also said they would soften the news of a terminal diagnosis if they thought it would give the patient hope.
Half (50%) of respondents said they may even go against a family’s wishes and keep treating a patient who they thought had a chance of surviving. Twenty-two percent said they absolutely would do so.
On the flip side, 86% of doctors said they don’t believe patients are kept on life support too long, and over half believe doctor-assisted suicide should be allowed. That number is up 17% from the 2010 survey, possibly indicating a shift in attitudes toward “death with dignity” issues.
source : What Your Doctor Worries About: Ethics Survey 2014
