October 13, 2024
Mission Hospital Bioethics Committee formed in 1991 to value patients

Dr. John Lawrence

The moral code of medicine originates in the fact of human illness and in the act of a professional. As a moral enterprise, medicine is grounded in a covenant of trust. The classic clinical encounter of doctor and patient is duplicated around the world: an individual asks for help from a caregiver who professes to be morally and technically competent to help him. That professional then does what he feels is “right” for that patient.

For millennia, the selection of what was ethical and correct care was within the purview of the physician. In the mid-late 20th century the discernment of what was “right” in medical care and ethics began to be challenged. The world and its population were changing.

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