Mini Bioethics School Question Responses

Should physicians be held accountable to human rights standards?

Yes =100%; No = 0

• Of course, they have a Hippocratic Oath by which they should be governed. It is appalling that medical staff would be intimately involved. How were they chosen? What was their life like before they were chosen? Why did they participate? Hippocratic Oath should prevail no matter what!


• Doctors must be accountable to human rights standards–the Hippocratic Oath pertain and they must be expected to function in a checks and balances capacity. Has research been done in who participated in torture? What allowed them to cross the moral line?


• Absolutely! I have spent a lot of time in Minnesota federal jails and prisons. I see respect and human rights practiced there by all professionals. We should expect no less in other venues.


• Ethics does not change based on where one is standing or what hat is being worn.


• A doctor must be held accountable to human rights standards and retain the primary identity of healer.

Is a military doctor who works in a POW facility primarily a doctor, a soldier, or something in between? Does this change the ethics of doctoring?

100% of the cards turned in stated a military doctor is always a "doctor" and it does not change the ethics of doctoring.

• An MD in the military is, in my experience, looked on as someone independent of the chain of command and respected and expected to act primarily as a physician, trusted to respect the privacy and dignity of their patients of any rank.
• A doctor! We win more friends as a nation by educating, healing and showing compassion. These behaviors must be practiced by the doctors too. Yes, including sanctions, prosecution and interaction.


• A doctor–the ethics of doctoring are clear and consistent. They are not negotiable or flexible.


• They are both a doctor and a soldier and that doesn’t change their ethical standards. Professional autonomy and ethics should always supercede military procedures.


• Both the MD and nurse uphold the pledge to "First–do no harm."