Monday, September 6, 2010

Fisticuffs over woman in labor

This article describes how an argument between two doctors in an Italian hospital erupted into a fistfight while the woman they were supposed to attend to was in labor in the same room. Her son suffered two heart attacks and may have sustained permanent brain damage; the woman had to undergo a hysterectomy after the birth.

Think about the following questions in relation to this article: Ought the moral standards we apply to medical practitioners to be higher than the moral standards we apply to other people? Or is the expectation that doctors should conform to high moral standards unrealistic? If so, why?

74 comments:

  1. The moral standards we apply to a medical practitioner should be higher, undoubtedly, than the moral standards we apply to other people. As a patient under a doctors' care, you are completely vulnerable and reliant upon your practitioners honesty to care for you in the most humane way possible. Even if the surgery is elective, with the patient as a customer who is able to shop around for the "best suited" doctor or surgeon, he ultimately lays his good health in the hands of someone who has more knowledge than him. You can do all the research in the world, but you so rarely see a patient who has as much knowledge about the particular area of study as his doctor has. Doctors are fined and subject to penalty if they are immoral in their lives and are found out; you simply cannot have immoral practitioners when you are dealing with something as serious as another human's life and wellbeing.

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  2. Doctors have a unique responsibility that is arguably greater than that of most professions. That responsibility is to use their medical training and knowledge of the human body to aid those in sickness and ensure overall good health for their patients. It is unlikely that most doctors who begin their medical training do not understand the tremendous role they will fulfill in the future as a health care professional. Because doctors are entitled to a great deal of autonomy in terms of decision making for their patients, I believe it is necessary to hold them to higher morality standards than, say, an automobile mechanic. Using this as an example, a doctor could potentially risk his or her patient's life if they choose to act immorally, (such as getting into a fistfight during childbirth)while an auto mechanic could, at worst, only damage your car. Therefore, it is imperative that health care professionals, especially doctors, be held to a higher standard of morality to protect the welfare of their patients and also avoid legal conflict.

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  3. I am in agreement with the previous two posts, as I do believe that we can, justifiably, hold medical practitioners to higher moral standards. Unlike those in vocational careers, medical professionals are assumed to be of a heightened level of expertise, honesty, and morality in societies arguably most important field. While there are careers that the public expects to find untrustworthy or "shady" people, medical practitioners need to be people we can trust - we often put our lives in their hands. Of course, there is corruption in every field, and medical professionals are people just like anyone. But these men and women have chosen a career dealing with the public at their most vulnerable. Ideally everyone would uphold proper moral standards, but at the very least, for a functioning society, the medical professionals need to be deserving of our trust.

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  4. In this case I think it is obviously unprofessional and unethical for these doctors to have been fighting in a patient's room. With that being said, and given the fact that it is reasonable to assume that a fight lasts somewhere between 10 and 15 minutes, it seems unlikely, especially without more information, to assume that neglect in this window of time is the cause of s cardiac complication, nor does a moment of maternal upset cause fetal complications or post partum hemmorrage/hysterectomy. I think that for a lay person to assume full physical responsibility of any complication on this event is unreasonable without further information. In general I do believe that while health care professionals should be held to high moral standards, there is a tendency to place automatic blame on doctors. The ultimate bottom line is if there was a compromising of patient care or safety. Of course this act is unacceptable, but as lay people we do not have the knowledge or sufficient information to make the judgment or whether a brief window of neglect caused these physical complications.

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  5. The moral standards we apply to medical practitioners typically tend to be a bit higher than the moral standards we apply to other people... and with good reason. Medical practitioners are the ones primarily responsible for the lives of others and it is their greatest duty to put the welfare of their patients before anything else-- that is their job. This places a firm burden upon doctors to always set the patients as their first priority in all cases. We frequently tend to expect more of doctors in particular because they are so well-educated and capable. It is unrealistic for us to demand that doctors be perfectly moral at all times, but it is very reasonable to expect them to follow a slightly stricter code of moral conduct, especially with the lives of innocent people directly at their hands. In this article, there was conflict over whether the doctors involved in the brawl were responsible for the injuries sustained by the newborn. They claimed that the complications of the birth were preexisting while the husband of the woman in labor argued otherwise. But whether they were directly responsible or not, both doctors undoubtedly failed to make the patients' welfare into their main priority, resulting in the loss of valuable time for faster treatment. These doctors were given the responsibility of ensuring the safest pregnancy delivery possible. But by fighting amongst themselves, they put their own personal interests first at the expense of an innocent child's life and health. As professionals in the medical field, they should have had their priorities as well as morals in order. Doctors definitely have a more direct responsibility over health and safety, and therefore should conform to higher moral standards. But all other people in their respective professions and overall lives should also try to follow through within fairly similar moral standards as doctors and try to value the welfare of others just the same.

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  6. Medical practitioners should be held to a higher moral standard than other people. They carry with them a larger responsibility and greater risk of harming a life if they are not upheld to these standards. They directly impact the lives of others with their every decision and even the smallest act of negligence could detrimentally effect the care of the patient. There is no way to determine the result of a particular decision/action, so doctors should be expected to perform with this high level of moral standard. It's unrealistic to create the pressure that medical practitioners be morally without flaws at all times. They need to be held to tighter moral standards but not expected to be perfect. With the article, those doctors were out of line to behave that way especially with a patient in their care. They have no right to deny that their fight did not cause the complications the baby was born with; there is no way for them to know for certain. In this instance, these doctors were expected to act with a more professional set of morals. They didn't and as a direct result may or may not have inflicted serious consequences on the baby. Medical practitioners should be held to a stricter set of moral conduct as well as standards because they are a direct influencer of the wellbeing and condition of life of their patients.

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  7. Although I agree with what other students have said regarding the need for doctors to uphold high morals in their interactions with patients, I do not feel that doctors should be held to higher moral standards. The morals that we have determined for our society are difficult to consistently achieve for most people. We expect people to always tell the truth, to always put the needs of weaker people above their own, and to avoid physical violence during arguments. Just like the rest of us, doctors are human, and they have a variety of factors competing with these morals. Therefore, applying a higher moral standard to these individuals is unfair, as doing so would essentially be asking these doctors to ignore all of these internal and external factors in favor of upholding society’s morals. As humans, we cannot do that. We can hope, given their extensive education and responsibilities, that doctors try to follow the accepted morals of society into their professional lives, but expecting them to function at an moral level far above the rest of the population is not realistic.

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  8. I do not believe the moral standards we apply to medical practitioners should be higher than those we apply to other people. After all, doctors are human beings like everyone else. It is unrealistic to imagine that doctors are, or even should be, perfect people who never step out of line. I doubt it is unreasonable to say that every person has done something immoral in at least once in their lifetime. However, when doctors are in their place of work, the situation changes. This is when we should expect medical practitioners to abide by a set of higher moral standards. It is an idea called professionalism. Despite whatever immoral behavior doctors may take part in during their personal lives, they must act morally once they put on their scrubs or white coats and agree to take responsibility over another's physical wellbeing. Doctors choose to care for those who, in a matter of speaking, cannot care for themselves. The idea behind the practice of medicine is that a patient will seek medical help and submit to the trained physician who will, in turn, help that patient become well again. The woman in labor went to the hospital seeking medical help, and instead she was ignored for the personal immorality of the doctors. In this case, a lack of professionalism may have caused the devastation of the lives of this infant and his family. When the doctors chose to attend this labor, they should have made the woman and her child the highest possible priority. They should have put their personal matters behind them until they were no longer influencing anyone's lives but their own. I do not believe we should be upset that two people who are doctors got into a physical fight. However, I do believe we should be outraged that these men got in a fight in front of their patients, while they were supposed to be making sure that the child was born without complication. We should expect doctors to only act morally and in the patients' best interests while responsible for their lives.

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  9. Even though this incident is irresponsible and incredible, I do not think that physicians should uphold higher moral standards than other occupations. Doctors should know that in the field of medicine, people are paying a lot of money for health care, and they are putting their lives in the hands of doctors. I am sure that unethical incidents have happened in many other occupations, but the spotlight may not be on those incidents because of the value of a human life. I would like to share two other unethical medical incidents I know of:

    At MGH here in Boston, a cardiac surgeon was suspended due to excessive anger and yelling in the operating room. In addition to his suspension, he was required to complete an anger management course before his return. This was a major issue within the cardiac team.

    Second, and many of you may have heard of this, a doctor left the operating room to go cash a check! I am unsure of the hospital and its location, but this was all over the news and his practitioner's license was revoked. Thank goodness for consequences!

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  11. I think medical practitioners should absolutely have a higher moral standard to live up to than those of other people. Unlike in most professions, people who come to medical providers are in their most vulnerable state. They put their utmost trust in their healthcare providers and expect professional, reliable help. However, even though I believe that medical providers SHOULD uphold higher moral standards than others, it might not be completely realistic. As the article proves, medical practitioners do not always act as they should. They are, as everyone else is, humans who are not perfect. Unfortunately, in the healthcare profession, people's lives are at stake and because of incidents like these, people are dying or get hurt.

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  12. I am a firm believer that physicians are held in a higher moral standard than that of other people. I also believe that this higher standard is justified in that the medical profession is considered to be the utmost prestigious of careers. When pursueing said career, people are seeking the respect of society. Even if that is not a motivator of the chosen career path, it comes with the territory of practicing medicine. That being said, it is a doctors duty and responsibilty to carry themselves professionally especially when on the job. Delivering a baby requires the utmost attention by the physician and their staff. The fact that the doctors were fighting means that 1) they were behaving unprofessionally and 2) they were not taking care of and attending to their patients. Whether there were preceding complications to the mom and baby prior to the quarrel between the two physicians is yet to be known. However, had the doctors been attending to their patients as they were supposed to the complications may not have been as severe or may have been non existent.

    When patients seek out medical care, they expect to receive the best service possible. That does not include watching doctors fight nor does it include feeling as though the patient/s were not well attending to. I don't care whether doctors feel as though they are able to carry themselves as anything less than professional; they entered into a field in which they are regarded as highly moral and respectable people. Therefore, they have a responsibility to act in such a way as to honor that stature of prestige.

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  13. In a professional environment, such as a hospital in this instance, physicians should be held to a higher standard. Any physician in the workplace is expected to act professionally and to adhere to a certain standard of quality care and attention to patients. If we do not enact higher standards for these highly educated physicians, how can we trust them to make the proper decision regarding an individual's health, and in more extreme cases, individual's lives? Part of a physicians job is to act professionally and to watch out for patient's best interests. In this case, the physicians lost complete sight of what was most important at that moment; hard feelings and disagreements among colleagues should be put aside and the patient should be the number one priority at all times. Why is a physician such a high paid and honorable occupation? it is because a lengthly and difficult education is required, as well as professionalism and good ethical conduct. Putting a child's life at risk and a mother's health at risk to prove something (or nothing is you will) in a fist fight during child labor is selfish, despicable, and the complete opposite of professional. Even though physicians are human beings and make mistakes, a situation like this is too extreme for there to even be a debate. A physician who can take it to this level has no business being a physician in the first place. Holding physicians to a higher standard is part of reality and one should not enter that field knowing that they are unable to handle such a great responsibility. Also, with the amount of education a physician has received, he or she should know better than to engage in behavior like that in the delivery room. If higher standards are not expected, why should physicians be trusted and why should physicians earn the salary that they do if they are only expected to act like a typical "joe shmoe?"

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  14. The moral standards that a doctor should be expected to demonstrate and work by, I believe should be higher than the moral standards applied to others. As mentioned previously in posts, the responsibilities of a doctor are far more significant than those of other professionals. A doctor holds the life of the patient in their hands, and we as patients have learned throughout our lives that making ourselves vulnerable to doctors is acceptable and they should be trusted.
    Being in this setting, where there are two doctors whose primary concern should have been the patient, they should have put any personal matters aside to work as a team and provide the woman with adequate (and hopefully exceptional) care. Especially in this case, where they doctors risked the well-being of the mother and the baby, possibly putting the baby at risk of death, the matters of their lives and disagreements definitely should not have been brought into the room. Certainly it should not have been brought to patient's or patient's family's attention.
    By assuming the responsibilities of being a doctor, and accepting that you are to care for others and help better their health as much as possible, you should also see that this job encompasses extensive moral standards that expand upon what is expected from other individuals. Other professions may not need to have such moral standards expected from them, but other professions do not put other's lives at risk either. For those other professionals their jobs allow them a little more flexibility regarding the repercussions of their actions. Many problems that occur in a work setting that may arise after such a conflict can be fixed. However, once a person has died they will never get their life back.

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  15. In an every day setting, medical practitioners should be held to the same moral standards as regular people. However, in a clinical or professional setting, where a doctor is clearly in command and others look up to him for advice and leadership, there are certain higher moral standards I would expect a doctor to adhere to. This woman was clearly in need of the doctor's help, but rather than putting their differences aside to take care of their patient, the two doctors pummeled one another. In this scenario the doctors are depicted as obviously unprofessional, but also immoral, due to their complete disregard of the patient. A doctor’s profession and moral duty is to help and aid his patients, not harm them. This woman obviously suffered at the hands of her doctors from something that could have easily been avoided, had the doctors been in control of their emotions.
    Katharina Schwan

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  16. I believe we should not hold the moral standards of medical professionals higher then everyone else but should instead expect them to act professional in their work environment. Every human should live on the same scale of morality.

    The implications that result from the immoral actions of a Doctor may be magnified due to the fact that a human life often depends on every action of a Doctor. On the contrary the consequences of the immoral actions of say a garbage man may SEEM less important due to the fact that the actions of a garbage men don't generally determine whether a human life will survive or not. However, on the scale of moral judgement, both individuals should be held to the same expectations since: they are both essentially human; and they both do affect the well being of others.

    Doctors should act morally during their time of work; garbage men should act morally in their time of work; every individual should act morally during their time of work. The actions of every individual in a community affects the well being of every one else in a community. Some actions are just more immediate than others.

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  17. Every person should be expected to follow the moral standards of their profession no matter what they do. The moral standards for doctors are not and should not necessarily be higher than they are for other people, but doctors do go into their profession understanding that they are going to face issues regarding these moral standards more frequently than people going into professions that do not put people's lives at risk.
    Engaging in a fist fight in the workplace is inappropriate and unprofessional no matter where it is. In this scenerio, it is even worse because a mother and her baby's lives were at risk. It is not unrealistic to ask that those doctors' primary concern should have been their patient. It is a doctor's responsibility to provide the best care possible for their patients, so it is not unrealistic that sometimes the moral standards that we as patients hold them to, be higher than other people when they are practicing on us.

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  18. It is most certainly acceptable and realistic to expect doctors, or any other person in the medical field for that matter, to hold moral standards higher than the average person. When the health and well being of another is in their hands, medical practitioners aught to maintain the highest standards of moral conduct due to the intense risk involved if such standards are not held. It would be unrealistic for medical practitioners NOT to withstand stricter or intense ethical standards when it is not their own life on the line, but that of others.

    In this given example, it may have been possible that the argument between the two doctors may have been related to the care of the patient. Regardless, if this was the case, such discussion should not have been a distraction from the care of the patient. It is of utmost importance for the doctors to hold higher moral standards, and maintain their attention to the patient in need, and not to themselves.

    However, in agreement with multiple comments above, there is a valid argument held by the fact that doctors themselves are still humans like the rest of us and will most likely make mistakes in their practices at one point or another. Given this, I believe that even though it may be unrealistic for the professionals to strictly adhere to these principals, it is realistic to maintain the expectations that medical professionals ought to hold higher moral standards than others.

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  19. Doctors should be held to the same moral standards as other people. The primary moral duty of the doctor is to preserve a patient’s life and wellbeing. This moral duty is not exclusive of doctors and is by no means a high moral standard. Indeed, the moral standard of protecting life is a very fundamental one. Since a doctor deals with decisions that touch on such a basic moral concept, he has a higher risk of heavy consequences for immoral choices, but the moral standards themselves are no different. For example, a garbage man that you consider morally deficient for hitting your mailbox and driving off would be REALLY morally deficient if he watched a kid have a skateboarding accident and fall unconscious in the street and drove off. All of us, whether we give to charity, cheat on tests, or shoplift, would be expected to do our best to ensure the injured skateboarder’s safety. The doctor would be as morally liable as anyone to do what he can to protect the skateboarder’s life. However, because the doctor is held to professional and legal standards in addition to moral standards, he risks greater personal consequences for immoral action. Overall, the moral standards for doctors are the same as moral standards for others, but their specialized training and legal standards give higher consequences to a doctor’s choices.

    In the case presented in the article, the doctors are at fault for letting personal emotions take precedence over providing care for the pregnant mother and her child. This is not simply because they are doctors who fumbled their job, but rather because they are human beings who neglected their duty to protect a fellow human’s well-being for the sake of a personal argument. In another situation, if a woman goes into labor at her home with no chance of getting to a hospital and her husband is around to deliver the baby, it is morally impermissible for him to get into a shouting match with one of his children and neglect his wife. It is realistic to hold doctors to the same moral standards, and doctors should never treat their duties as so mundane that they become negligent. All of us are obligated to help lives in need, and while all humans make mistakes, these mistakes cannot be so grave that this basic duty is grossly compromised.

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  20. All people in the medical field should absolutely be held to a higher moral standard than others. It should be known to all doctors and any one in the medical field that this professional standard is what they should be held to. This standard is an exceptional standard because when patients enter a hospital, doctor’s office or clinic the well being of a patient is completely in the hands of the doctor. We are not talking about a business deal; this is the health and wellness of a human being. Clearly engaging in physical fights is not professional or acceptable in any atmosphere, but especially in a medical one. The standards could be seen as unrealistic to an extent, but again we are talking about the health and survival of a patient, that is a larger task than any other profession therefore the standards should be set at a high level. The fact that the doctors see no link between the infant’s medical problem and the fight they engaged in should not matter. They still engaged in a physical fight when on the job, when they were in charge of other people’s lives. It is understood in a medical field there is very little room for error and it is unrealistic to think doctors are perfect in that sense. But, physical fighting should not be considered an error, these doctors knew what they were doing and still chose to engage in fighting. Its unrealistic to think these doctors shouldn’t be held to a higher standard.
    Shannon Doherty

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  21. Medical practitioners should be held to higher moral standards in the work place than people of other occupations. In this article, we do not know whether or not the doctors’ immature behavior effected the patient directly or not but either way it was unprofessional. Doctors and other medical practitioners enter their field of work to help save lives and that is exactly what they should do. Medical practitioners should not allow disagreements with coworkers to get in the way of performing their job. Patients seek medical care to be protected, not to worry about whether their doctor will behave properly. The expectation that doctors should conform to higher moral standards is realistic in the work setting. To me, it is more important how the doctor behaves at work than how he/she behaves in his personal life. While I hope that my doctor holds high moral standards outside of the hospital, I think it is a priority to have high moral standards when dealing with patients. Doctors will make mistakes, they are not perfect, but no mistake should be made due to inappropriate and immature behavior (i.e. fighting at work).

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  22. I don't necessarily agree that we should apply a higher standard to medical practioners, nor do I agree that doctors should have to conform to high moral standards. I don't think that it's fair to apply a set of morals to someone else and expect that person to conform to those expectations. That being said, however, I think it is human nature to place a higher trust in medical practioners and doctors.
    By their position, doctors are sworn to the Hippocratic Oath which states: "I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, those sound of mind and body as well as the infirm."(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/doctors/oath_modern.html) Through saying this, Doctors ascertain that they have a responsibility to society and more importantly their patients. Because of this responsibility I believe that Doctors and medical practioners should place on themselves a high ethical and moral standard, as the nature of their job and role in society depends on it. As this role is implied in their job description, though, I don't believe it is necessary or fair for a person to try to apply their own set of morals/ethics onto a doctor, due to the differences in each person's definition of morality and ethics.

    -Shannon Young

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  23. Doctors and other medical professionals should be held to a particularly higher standard when they occupy their place of profession, but when not there they should upheld to moral standards applied to everyone. Medical practitioners should have the knowledge and demeanor to act in such a way that is appropriate for the work place. Even though this is upheld for every professional place medical practitioners have beyond more responsibility when it comes to their job. Everyday they have a person's life in their hands to tend to which sets a higher standard of care than most other jobs. Fighting in the work place is not a moral standard that which would be accepted anywhere but these doctors had not only one life at the time to help and focus on, but two. Disagreements are for outside of the work place and they should not affect how medical practitioners conduct themselves when dealing with patients. Patients are usually scared and unaware of most things going on when they are in a hospital, and truly need a doctor that will not fool around but will focus intently on helping their well-being. Once the practitioner is not working then there is no reason to hold them to a higher standard because they are not responsible for a person's life at that point in time. This standard may be viewed as somewhat unrealistic by some people but the focus is the patients life and there ought not to be unrealistic standards when it comes to that. People sometimes do act inappropriately and mistakes are made, but there is no reason why something as absurd as fighting while patients lives are at stake should occur in any work place, especially a medical work place.
    Kelsey Petersen

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  24. I believe that medical practitioners should uphold to higher moral standards. I believe this because of the history of the profession itself. Doctors have continuously pushed down other health professions in order to maintain an autonomous position in society. Some even question to whether the required science courses in medical school are actually needed or if they are simply there to preserve a doctor’s autonomy above a nurse. If a doctor wants to hold a superior position, why not also hold higher standards? Research has noted that nurse practitioners are sometimes even more experienced and provide better quality care than a doctor. If this is really the case, it is not a surprise that the doctors are fighting when they are supposed to be attending to a patient. In order to change this already diminishing image of the doctor, higher moral standards should be upheld not only for the well being of the patients but for the respect of the medical profession itself. With the profession, comes greater responsibility because you are responsible for more than yourself. The history of the doctor has made it this way. For that reason a doctor must put his own self interests aside for the greater good on a daily basis and therefore abide by higher moral standards.

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  25. Even though I don't think anyone should be having violent confrontations with their coworkers while in the work place and especially while attending to a patient/client; I do believe that the moral standards we apply medical practitioners should be higher. First of all, medical practitioners have one of the most important and serious professions in our society; which is to cure and treat people. They are being trusted with peoples' lives and they should take this seriously and put their problems aside while treating their patients and worry about problems with their coworkers outside the work place. I also believe that doctors overuse their power and some think they can do whatever they want. If they want to practice such an autonomy over everyone then they should put 110% of themselves when treating their patients and realize that if they are not practicing seriously there will be consequences suffered by their patients who are with the idea that they can trust their doctor completely and that they will do everything in their power to treat them successfully instead of fighting with one of their coworkers while treating them. Medical professionals need to understand the seriousness of their position in society and if they are going to practice as medical professionals they should accept the idea that their profession is not the same as say, a car salesman, and are going to be held at higher moral standards.

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  26. Doctors should be held to a higher moral standard than other individuals. Doctors care for the lives of others and their decisions and actions impact the lives of their patients. When doctors, such as the Italian doctors in the article, do not display high moral standards their actions may cause harm to their patients. The doctors in the article should have settled the dispute in a professional manner and to think of the impact their decisions have on the patient rather than how much money the decision makes them. I do not believe holding doctors to a high moral standards is unrealistic because in their profession doctors should always be working to provide the best possible care for all their patients. Morality is more important in situations where lives are at stake, working in an office selling moral decisions are not frequently encountered never mind life threatening.

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  27. Although it would be easy to say that doctors should act to a superior standard when compared to other individuals, it is hard to overlook the fact that we are all humans. As humans we experience the same feelings throughout life: grief, stress, happiness, anger, excitement, etc. When these emotions take hold of a person, they can begin to rule their actions despite their profession. However, I would say that doctors should be held to a superior standard when they are at work or practicing their profession. Negative emotions and bias need to be put aside for doctors when at work in order to perform their task to its full potential. The fact that doctors have a superior profession in the world makes this necessary, as he/she is in the control of another person's life and future. Although it may be natural to experience negative emotions even in the workplace, doctors need to be able to set them aside and provide their full attention to their patients.

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  28. The moral standards that we apply to medical practitioners should be higher than the moral standards we apply to other people. Medical practitioners have the responsibility of ensuring the best care for their patients, and ultimately have their patients lives in their hands. Immoral behavior demonstrated in the presence of patients can affect the patients well-being and outcome, as it obviously has in this case. Although medical practitioners are still human, they must be held to a higher standard when having such an important role in society. There is a time and place for everything, and this confrontation between the doctors could easily have taken place else where and not affected any of their patients. This expectation of doctors is not unrealistic, as they know of the expectations before choosing the career. Doctors must understand that they have a responsibility to put their patients first and deal with personal issues at a more appropriate time. If they cannot do so, it is often noted by superiors or peers and suggested they remove themselves from any situations in which they cannot compose themselves or act with the high moral standards in which they are expected.

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  29. As a patient, I would be incredibly disappointed if my doctor did not feel as if he or she was held to a higher moral standard than a majority of the working public. A physician holds in his or her hands the life of another human being and that is a huge responsibility- one that he or she must be very careful in bearing. Therefore the excuse ‘I’m only human-I’m allowed to make mistakes’ doesn’t exactly work all the time- especially in the situation described in the article. A doctor’s primary concern at such a critical time should not be personal issues but instead the patient. The disagreement between the two doctors should have been dealt with privately on their own time. In fact, such a brawl shouldn’t be excusable in any workplace, let alone in a hospital.
    That is not to say that doctors aren’t susceptible to making mistakes however. As a patient I would understand that it is unrealistic for me to expect my physician to be faultless but as long he or she tried to maintain a moral standard for themselves to the best of their ability and kept their personal matters from affecting their work, I would be satisfied. I think its important for physicians to remember that even a momentary lapse in judgment can lead to a lifetime of consequences and regret- and therefore they must always proceed with their actions responsibly and thoughtfully.

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  30. I think that in any professional setting there is a certain code of conduct and respect that should be followed. Acting irrationally and immorally definitely does not follow this unspoken code. I think for a doctor, the expectations to be professional, civil, and moral are heightened because it is not only their own lives at stake. Patients put their trust and lives into their doctors' hands, and, in return, they should receive undivided care and attention. Becoming a doctor is not an easy job that everyone can handle, that is why society respects them for their accomplishments. That is why we hold them to such high expectations. Yes, everyone is human, but they should learn to set aside any personal differences when a patient is in their care.

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  31. Whether one is a physician or layperson, the same common morals should apply to everyone. Telling the truth, helping those in need, not harming others, and respecting people's self-made decisions are all moral standards that apply to everyone equally. Medical practitioners should not conform to higher moral standards than everyone else because it is unrealistic: The moral standards that we all adhere to are essentially based on the fact that we are all human and there are certain actions that we would all agree are inherently right or wrong. The difference between doctors and laypeople is that the moral dilemmas that doctors face are usually much more serious or are higher stakes scenarios. For example, in a doctor's case a dilemma will most likely be a life or death situation rather than something more mundane. Therefore, while doctors are really applying the same moral standards as everyone else, it appears more extraordinary. Additionally, it is not that doctors should be held to higher moral standards but more-so that since physicians are figure-heads in the community, it is especially important for them to conduct themselves in a moral and professional manner at all times in order to set an example for everyone else.

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  32. Along with the above posts, I also agree that the moral standards we apply to medical professionals should be higher than the moral standards we apply to other people. Although many professions have different types of responsibilities and obligations, the commitment medical professionals have is a lot different. In the way that they have to make decisions and how these decisions can potentially drastically affect individuals. Medical professionals are committing themselves to a profession where the health and well-being of many lives are in their hands. They create a sort of relationship with patients for patients to trust them and unlike in this article, these two doctors should have been more reliable and they could have settled their situation elsewhere rather than putting lives in danger. The situation they were in has to be carefully investigated in what role they played or if their disagreement really caused these two lives to suffer.

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  33. Medical professionals have the enormous and necessary responsibility of keeping humans healthy, which is tantamount to society. This pertinent profession must have higher moral standards than any other profession. The article represents the tragedy that is brought when doctors fail to abide by their moral standards. This profession not only involves saving the lives of others, but showing trust, honesty, and expertise as well. If higher moral standards are not applied to medical practitioners, then the wellbeing and safety of society will be in danger. Although high moral standards should already be applied to every profession, doctors should conform to even higher ones. Doctors should conform to higher moral standards in order to illustrate their respect for society. This is a prestigious career that involves saving the lives of others and maintaining the enormous responsibility they have.

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  34. Medical professionals should, in my opinion, be held to higher moral standards than we apply to other people. I think this is important when they are working because they are often dealing with life or death experiences. The medical profession is a highly regarded, highly trusted profession. Every day thousands of people entrust their lives or a loved ones life to a doctor or other medical profession. Medical professionals deal with the life, health, and wellness of a human being, which in my opinion means that they should be held to higher moral standards. The physician's behavior in the article was completely immature and unprofessional. In no profession should you fight with a coworker, and you definitely should not do it in front of a client. It is not concluded in the article whether the child's birth defects were indeed due to the doctors being preoccupied with fighting each other, but it is a possibility. No person should ever be put in the situation where a doctor's misbehavior puts them at risk. Medical professionals need to be held to higher standards because they need to be extra careful in choosing their actions, their actions could cost someone their life. The doctors in the article are not even following a basic moral code, but medical professionals in general should be held to a higher moral standard than other people.
    Corcoran Downey

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  35. This incident that occurred is a tragic one in the sense that two men let their personal problems interfere in their place of work and because of that there were consequences to an innocent woman. While doctors are in a position to potentially help or harm a patient, I don't think that qualifies them to be held to higher moral standards. Everyday, we interact with other people and put our lives potentially at risk when we drive a car, get on a plane, etc. I understand as many others have said that patients are completely vulnerable to a doctor's care. However, I truly believe that everyone should be held to the same moral standards and those standards should be set high. Your choice of profession shouldn't constitute your moral standards. A doctor shouldn't have to be held by such high moral standards while some average person working in an office in New York City is socially accepted to have lower moral standards than a doctor. How is that ethical? Morality is not based on profession. Morality comes from the individual's mind. It's personal. Everyone in society should have high moral standards in order to prevent complete chaos and social disorder. Also, there are always consequences when someone does something wrong. Those two doctors are facing legal issues as well as being suspended from their jobs. Holding them to higher moral standards is just unfair in my eyes. I do think it's unrealistic to expect doctors to conform to high moral standards because not everyone is perfect and will not have the same moral standards and that's okay. Like I said earlier, morality is personal and expecting a group of people who are only similar based on their profession to conform to a high standard of morals is unrealistic. Even if a doctor doesn't have the highest moral standards, that doesn't mean that they are a bad doctor. I'm sure they do their job just as well, and if they don't they face consequences.

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  36. As most everyone has said before me, medical professionals must be held to a higher moral standard than the rest of society. The reason for this is that on a daily basis doctors are forced to make potentially life threatening decisions regarding their patients. Whether it be performing surgery, suggesting a radical mode of treatment, or not starting a fist fight while a woman is in labor, the decisions that physicians make may have devastating consequences. Take for example the action of lying. It is universally known that dishonesty is immoral and should generally be avoided at all times (except when your mom asks you how the meat loaf was). However, the repercussions of a doctor lying to you, as opposed to an auto-mechanic, are drastically different. For example, if a doctor withholds a low risk treatment option, and in its place suggests a risky surgery because of monetary incentives, he has just put your life in danger. On the other hand, an auto-mechanic who lies and says that you need new breaks has behaved immorally as well but has not put your life in danger. Therefore the moral standards we apply to medical practitioners must be higher than other people because of the devastating consequences that can be caused by their immoral behavior.
    -Terence McGill

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  37. I do believe that medical practitioners should be held to higher moral standards because they have chosen medicine as their profession. This is a scary time for patients and they look to physicians for guidance in an area that is foreign to most; with medical jargon and diagnosis that few understand. Although the patient might have done their homework, it does not matter how much research went into finding the "right" doctor, if the physician does not understand themselves the importance of their job. The physician is expected by most patients to make the decision about the care without too much input from the patient, because after all they should know whats best. Someone who has that much power over the life of another human being should be held by society to higher standards than the average person.
    A physician has dedicated a decade of their life to get the privilege of calling themselves doctor and with that comes a set of higher moral standards than others. It is a lofty standard to meet, but one I do not feel is unrealistic. This situation could have been avoided had the physicians set aside their personal differences and attended to the woman in labor, since she was their patient.

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  38. The moral standards we apply to medical practitioners ought to be held higher than professionals in nonmedical professions because of a simple idea intrinsic to medical professionals: the thoughts and actions of said professionals directly impact the lives of individuals. For example, an action of an accountant that is not up to par with some moral standard would more likely than not not have a direct consequence that could create lifelong health problems for another. While it is important to remember that his or her unmoral action does not completely remove itself from that possibility, it is incredibly less likely. Why not then, apply higher moral standards to those who directly impact our health if it does indeed provide a universal benefit. Individuals who enter into the realm of health care professions should do so with this understanding, it is part of the job so to speak. With this in mind, is should be deemed completely realistic to hold medical practitioners to a higher moral standard when it comes to actions and thoughts related to work.

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  39. I do not feel that it is unreasonable to hold medical practitioners to a higher moral standard when in the work place. Yet, it would not be fair to extend this expectation to their private lives. As a patient, when placing your trust and confidence in a medical professional you would assume that something as juvenile as a fist fight would never distract your doctor from providing you with the best care. When in the office a medical practitioner should have only one concern, the wellbeing of their patient. Clearly, in this case, the doctors were not focusing their undivided attention upon their patient. They were distracted by the argument or hostility that resulted the fist fight. A medical practitioner must be able to put aside any emotional baggage when with patient in order to do their duty of providing care.

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  40. High moral standards should be applied to all professionals. I do not believe that because these individuals were doctors that they should be expected to act in more a morally responsible way, but because they were in their professional environment. Although it is rather idyllic to expect that all professionals conform to high moral standards this would set a standard to not allow personal problems interfere with the services provided.

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  41. Doctors are professionals and should be applied to a high moral standards. Their profession has given them responsibility and with that they should be expected to act accordingly. WIth that however doctors are people too and they are entitle to their emotions. But also they cannot be overly emotional where it leads them to punch their peers and cause complications for their patients. Doctors are to first to do no harm to their fellow doctors or their patients.

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  42. It is important in this case to define both professionalism and moral standards, as there is a difference between the two. Moral standards are the set of beliefs that govern one's decision-making in every day life. These standards shape a persons ethical beliefs and help justify the choices that they make as either right or wrong. Professionalism is different in that it relates specifically to one's behavior in the workplace. Acting in a professional manner would generally consist of acting in the best interest of the person whom you are serving, treating your co-workers in a respectful manner, and generally behaving both diplomatically and unemotionally.
    It is fair to demand that medical practitioners act in a professional manner, just as it is fair to demand the same of all who perform services for you. I do not believe, however, that it is fair to hold medical practitioners to a higher moral standard than the rest of the population. Because they operate on human beings does not mean that they act as saints who do no wrong. It merely means that in order to practice, they must display the utmost professionalism in the workplace.

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  43. I believe every person no matter what their profession is should have high moral standards. However, in some professions such as medicine, these standards play a larger role because of the implications, the high responsibility and consequences their work has upon others.

    In the medical profession, these standards are always questioned and center of debate. In other professions that don't impact society so directly as this one, these standards exist but are not so frequently used or reflected on.

    I believe one should always be aware of their moral standards especially if you are a doctor or work in an area that directly affects people everyday, in radical ways such as life or death situations.


    Renata Brito

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  44. There is a difference between “universal morality” that holds for everyone, from norms that bind only members of special groups such as physicians, nurses and such. As such, we tend to think, and with good cause, that the moral standards of this group of people have to be higher.
    This brings about the topic of the status of virtues as Beauchamp and Childress elegantly address. A person disposed by character to have good motives, such as a physician, provides the model of the "moral person" and thus this determines our expectations of persons which in turn are expressed as obligations. Because doctors take up such a higher moral standard in their job (and they do), we expect and see it as their obligation.
    Now, it is clear that we do expect a higher degree of moral standards, but ought we to expect more of them? Certainly. Professional roles are usually tied to institutional expectations and it is for this reason that they do the work they are entitled to and are trusted. Standards in the common morality pertain to everyone but these are but the moral minimum and because the job of a doctor entails so much responsibility, independence and conscientious, the moral minimum (held by the common people) is not sufficient. It is in fact a moral obligation that they have, because it is established by roles in health care, while if someone from the common people had these high standards they would be perceived as mere “moral ideals”. The line between what is “praiseworthy” and what is an “obligation” becomes grey and what we usually see as praiseworthy in the common man, we see as an obligation in the doctor. Certainly this doesnt mean that there is no place for error - for there is - as doctors remain mere humans, but the error rate is (expected to be) much smaller as their job is on the human body - and there is nothing more particular and precious than that.

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  45. The moral standards applied to physicians are and should be higher than those applied to the rest of society. Physicians occupy a unique position in society in which their attitudes, decisions, and conduct influence the lives of patients in their care much more so than in any other profession. Patients often quite literally put their lives into their doctors' hands, which requires doctors to be extra vigilant that they behave in a responsible and ethical manner. While some have said that these physicians acted unprofessionally but not immorally, I disagree. Given the nature of their work, a physician's moral code and professional code of conduct are inextricably intertwined. In situations like the one described in the article, by acting in a manner that is undeniably unprofessional in any profession, the physicians also acted immorally, as they failed to uphold their duty to do no harm and protect the lives of their patients.

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  46. As hard as it may be to say, I believe that a Physician ought to hold him or herself to higher moral standards. Due to the nature of their career, as it pertains sensitively to human life and well being, they are often directly responsible for an outcome of an individuals health. Despite the fact that we are all human beings and subject to the same emotions and flaws, it is important to expect and demand a certain degree of professionalism and higher moral standards out of a Physician.

    It is certainly not an unrealistic expectation, although it may be a challenge, as we see many instances of unprofessionalism within the medical field. Physicians are often expected to perform flawlessly, and as humans, none of us are flawless. Herein lies the issue, how can we expect flawless professionalism and above human moral standards out of beings that simply are not more than human. As disgraceful as it is to see examples such as this article, I feel it is not something that we can rid society of permanently.

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  47. I believe that medical practitioners should certainly be held to higher moral standards than we apply to other people. A physician’s primary purpose in the workplace is to care for the lives of others. Patients come to the hospital vulnerable and helpless; they seek care from physicians and these physicians should be able to help patients to the best of their abilities. While under the care of physicians, patients must rely upon their physician to make decisions on their behalf. If a doctor were not held to such high moral standards, the consequence of ignoring moral standards could be far worse than in any other profession. If one makes the decision to become a physician and have the lives of others in his/her hand, it should automatically be understood that this individual will be held to higher moral standards than usual because of this exceptional profession.

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  48. There is something so unique about the job of a medical practitioner in comparison to many other career paths that we must uphold these individuals to higher moral standards. For medical practitioners play such an intimate role in the cycle of life from birth to illness to death. They have the ability to bring lives into this world and to equally remove them. Everyday someone's life is in the hands of a medical practitioner and someday ours will be too. Medical practitioners must make decisions everyday that the average person would maybe come across once or twice in their lifetime. Basically what I am saying is that when someone's life is involved everything is completely different. What these physicians did wrong was let personal issues get in the way of a patient's well-being which is highly unethical. For a doctor, it should always be the patient's needs before your own. Now this child will forever bear the result of this failure to take one's job seriously. The main reason a medical practitioner should be held to higher moral standards is because one's actions can affect so much more people beyond one's self, which was highly evident in this situation.

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  49. The moral standards of physicians should be held at a higher level than ordinary people, but only when doctors are taking care of patients. Patients trust physicians to select the best treatment since the majority of people do not understand blood results and other diagnostic tests. Furthermore, the ramifications of a physician’s decision are much greater than that of other professions, so it is necessary to hold doctors to stringent standards. However, it is unrealistic and unreasonable to hold doctors to a higher moral standard outside of the clinical setting. When a physician is not caring for a patient, the consequences of his immoral actions are no greater than those committed by ordinary people. Therefore, in this setting, we should not raise the physician’s “moral bar”.

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  50. Becoming a doctor requires more than the long path of required education, it requires taking full responsiblities for someone else's life; much more than other job titles entail. Because of the amount of time it takes to complete medical school and become a credible dr., we automatically gain moral responsibility. However, there have been many mistakes made by doctors and although their education gains my respect, I will always have a hesitation when a doctor recommends a serious surgery. Much of the medical system has become a business, giving doctors alternative reasons to perform extraneous surgeries that could contribute to a lifethreatening mistake.

    All human beings should be heald to the same moral standard regardless of education levels. The main point is that doctors are also human beings who are working to make a living for their families. Humans make mistakes and it seems very unrealistic to automatically trust, in some situations, total strangers with the moral integrity to make decisions in lives that aren't theirs. I do give doctors respect and credit for the hours they put into learning and studying the human body, but I just think we, as patients, should be a little more cautious when automatically taking advice from a "stranger".

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  51. The fact that the Doctor was on shift and working should have been reason enough for him to not only want to be held to a higher moral standard, but that we as trusting patients should be able to expect only the best care and undivided attention from our chosen doctor. It is not an unrealistic expectation that physicians should be held to higher moral standards than we apply to other people, because we trust them and their obligation to treat each patient to the best of their abilities and we even give them permission to take our problems and sometimes lives into their hands to do with as they see fit. We as people have an undivided trust in our physician to put their own biases aside and fulfill their moral obligation to do what is best for their patient. In the case of the brawling doctors, clearly neither of them had the patients best interests in mind, and at a time of such high stress for the woman in labor they not only added stress to the situation but they put two lives in danger because of their selfishness and their inability to separate work from their own feelings. I understand that no human is flawless, but as with any working professional, if we do not expect them to perform at the highest moral standard possible than how would any job get done right by any working professional?

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  52. Doctors should absolutely be held to higher moral standards. Their job is to care for their patient to the best of their ability, so I see no reason why they shouldn't be held to high moral standards. I think that standard applies to other professions as well, but doctor's especially as they are responsible for another human being. Obviously doctors are human and they make mistakes and it is unrealistic to assume that a higher moral standard means they are impervious to them. However, doctors are supposed to do what is best for the patient and I believe a high moral standard is an important part of that. I also agree with several people who have pointed out that in the case with the fighting doctors professionalism is more in question than the moral standard. I would be appalled if my doctors started fighting in front of me. I think that in this case a low level of professional behavior led to neglect of their patient, rather than a low moral standard.

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  53. To become a doctor, one must take the Hippocratic Oath which, among other things, requires that they aim to help the sick and not harm them. In doing so, medical practitioners commit themselves to being more ethical and moral people than people who are not doctors. This is part of their job description that they willingly agreed to. The term moral standards is not very clear for most people, so asking medical practitioners to go above and beyond something that is hard to define seems unrealistic. However, doctors should uphold the Hippocratic Oath because it has specific parameters and was knowingly taken on by the doctors. Their job entails very serious and sometimes life-threatening matters and just by this nature of the work doctors tend to be perceived as all-knowing and powerful. People expect medical practitioners to tell the truth and do what is in their patients’ best interest. This seems to fall into the category of a doctor’s job description. Yet often times what is the truth and what is in the patient’s best interest is not clear. In these instances, doctors must use their best educated guess. Medical practitioners are people and can only be expected to do their best. Yes, they have a special skill, but this does not require them to be under a higher moral standard. Performing their job to the best of their abilities just may happen to put them in a higher moral category than other professionals.

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  54. I think that discussion has created a confusion between two separate matters, professionalism and moral standards. Although it seems that the doctors in this articles behaved immorally, I'd argue that more details must be divulged before arguing this effectively. Assuming these details show that had the fight been avoided, the baby would be damage free and the mother scar free. If this is the case, then sure we may say the doctors ignored the moral standards that are implicit with their profession. However, equally likely is the case that these birth defects and hysterectomy were inevitable, as the doctor wishes to argue, and maybe the argument was over some controversial delivery method that one doctor disagreed with. We are not in a position to say that the fight, over this delivery method, forced the delivery to occur conventionally and saved the babies life. Then I'd be forced to argue the doctor should be judged as acting in accordance with moral standards by saving a life, albeit incurring some damages along the way. The lack of detail in the article really only allows one judgement, that is to say that regardless of other details the doctors acting unprofessionally. With the discussion of professionalism, related but inherently separate from morality, I think we should be careful not to allow the two terms to become synonymous.
    As for holding doctors to higher moral standards, I believe the same universal moral standard should apply to physicians as we hold ourselves to. I do not believe it is fair to expect greater morals to be upheld by physicians because they are only human as well. However, their profession require the continuous adherence to these standards and the effects of their deviation from them are more profound, but the standards are the same.

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  55. In addition to multiple years of schooling, a physician must be prepared to deal with inevitable ethical issues. Practicing medicine can be a glamorized profession characterized by high income, prestige, and honor. Such high rewards come with crucial responsibilities that test the human nature of physicians each day. In light of this, I believe that moral and ethical standards are, and should be, held much higher for medical practitioners. Patients entrust their lives in doctors and depend on their expertise, professionalism, and their medical decisions. In this article, a woman trusts the doctors with her and her newborn son’s lives. The two doctors have ultimately broken their vow to “do no harm” by diverting their attention from the patients’ life-threatening situation. In no other profession do we find people who hold such delicate and important responsibilities for human life. Therefore, it is essential for doctors to maintain boundaries and ethical standards when caring for the health and safety of patients.

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  56. Our society puts medical practitioners on a high pedestal and with good reason. Any job that involves saving or protecting an individual's wellbeing should have higher moral standards compared to other professions. In this case, the behavior of the two doctors is highly unacceptable and unethical within their field. It is difficult to know if the baby had problems before or if the dispute led to complications. Medical professionals agree to partake in this field and as part of it they agree to provide the best health services and protect our wellbeing no matter what circumstances or problems they have. Health is critical to all of us and based on the doctor’s recommendations and/or procedures, a patients life can be endangered. When patients seek help, they expect knowledgeable, committed, trained and caring individuals. It is their duty to provide a safe environment for all patients. Hence, I believe that the moral standards we apply to medical practitioners have and should be higher. As ordinary individuals outside of their professional responsibilities, they follow our universal and societal moral standards but within the profession these standards ought to be higher.

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  57. There is no dispute that the physicians mentioned in the article acted unprofessionally. In ANY profession, an argument ending with fists should be severely reprimanded. Doctors, of all professions, should leave their private life private, and disputes should be handled away from patients. If it can be proved that their actions harmed the child, then their actions would be immoral because they violated the very promise they gave to become doctors: Do no harm. If the child had unforeseen complications that were not caused by the irresponsibilities of the doctors, then they are not (completely) at fault and acted as any severely agitated humans would and argued, though the article was severely lacking in the details surrounding the argument. The fact that they are doctors does not exclude them from normal human emotions and lapses of judgement. Expecting such physicians to have a poker face when angry enough to punch a window is extremely unrealistic, though many people DO hold them to such a lofty standard because of the medical training and stigma attached to the title. It's important to realize that doctors are people too.

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  58. With all professions comes the responsibility to uphold basic moral standards, although it is important to point out that some professions require a higher standard of conscientiousness than others. Practitioners are responsible to put their best effort towards ensuring the well being of each and every one of their patients. Whether or not practitioners should conform to a higher moral standard than other people is very questionable to me. How do we judge what that higher moral standard is? In my opinion, what is really in question here is the standard of professionalism that should be exemplified by a practitioner. Patients put all their trust in their doctor, especially in life or death situations. Under no circumstances should the well being of a patient be jeopardized due to an altercation between coworkers. With great responsibility should come the ability to prioritize correctly. In this particular case, the safe birth of a baby should have been top priority.

    -Maria Mannara

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  59. Since we live in country that holds high the idea of equality (for all men and women are created equal), it may be tempting to assert that the same moral standards ought to be uniformly applied across persons, regardless of one’s profession or creed. As Americans, we find the idea of equality both attractive and appealing. However, if one were to poll this class for instance on the question of applying equal moral standards across board, it’s almost certain that the majority would not want their doctor and, say, their plumber held to the same moral standards. And the reason is simple: doctors wield a tremendous power, the power over life and death, and so society holds them to a higher standard. It is often said that “with great power comes great responsibility,” and this could not be any more true than when applied to physicians. In our society, few professions enjoy the high esteem and special status that is accorded to medicine. Society gives doctors this high regard precisely because we expect “more” from them. We expect them to conduct themselves with great poise and unswerving moral integrity. The behavior of those two physicians mentioned in the article, while not the norm, serves as a reminder of the conduct we do not want in our doctors.

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  60. The moral standards that are applied to medical practitioners should be higher than those applied to other people, because medical practitioners spend about a decade obtaining a degree/license to practice medicine (taking care of the lives of others). Having that title is a very respectful one, where people entrust their lives in your hands. Doctors are looked as one of the highest professions.
    Either saving lives in a trauma room or a physical examination in your primary care physician’s office, carries a monumental responsibility that should be taken very importantly. When doctors and patients interact, it is the doctor’s priority to do all he/she can to sustain or rescue that person, who is in a very vulnerable state and needs the care and knowledge of someone qualified such as.
    Doctors must behave a step higher than other people, for example in the article, it was very unprofessional-like to start a verbal argument and allow it to escalate to a physical altercation during a women’s labor and operation. Not only were they unprofessional but they were also dealing with a not so easy birth; the husband said there had been no previous complications, but further complications probably could have been derailed if the altercation did not occur. They put the patient’s life in danger. I don’t think it is unrealistic for these higher moral standards to be implemented; doctors already take the Hippocratic Oath (promising to practice medicine ethically), it wouldn’t hurt to add even more higher moral values and standards. But just like everything, humans are not perfect, but that’s not to say it isn’t worth it or unrealistic to establish.

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  61. Doctors are highly respected and often idolized due to their expertise. Consequently, the medical profession holds a public prestige where doctors are expected to devote healing powers to each of their patients. The medical norm has been set to a high standard, and rightly so. I think that every career option requires a sense of morality but because medical practitioners have greater responsibility than most other careers, their sense of morality is more frequently challenged, and thus heightened. Doctors are responsible for preserving and maintaining life-- the foundation of morality itself--and they deal with these life and death situations on a regular basis. In doing so, I believe that doctors acquire a higher sense of morality since their career challenges it so often. In essence, they are forced to define and live by a moral conduct consistently. On the other hand, it is unfair to say that Dr. Smith is “more moral” than your average Joe because Dr. Smith is faced with more moral decisions at his workplace. Joe might be a law-abiding citizen who out of his own will, also helps the less fortunate at a shelter by donating clothes and food. In this sense aren’t they both then preserving life? And both being equally moral?

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  62. I believe every human being should live by the highest moral standards, and thus I do not expect doctors to adhere to an even higher moral code. If individuals hold themselves to the standards of right and wrong, it is not possible for the medical practitioner to live a life more righteous than others. I think within any profession the professional is there to guide, protect, help, or benefit their clients. Policemen have to be held to high moral standards for a corrupt cop would allow criminals to harm civilians. A lawyer must be held to high moral standards because they are ensuring that their clients are treated fairly by the law. Even football players should have the highest of moral standards and set the right examples because many kids look up to them as role models. I believe teachers, clergy, or any of those in positions of authority or responsibility should share the highest of moral standards.

    -Andrew Schiff

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  63. There should be a difference in the expectations of moral standards between medical practitioners and people of other professions because medical practitioners hold a greater amount of responsibility than most people. Doctors should have higher standards because they are constantly handling the health and lives of the population, and without these standards there would be a higher risk of failure. It is suitable for there to be such an expectation because it brings about a higher level of professionalism that should be implemented at all times as opposed to the type of behavior that was described in the article. It is not acceptable for doctors to be acting in that sort of way, especially when they are attending a woman that is going into labor. These high standards have created the social norm that personifies what the behavior of a professional physician should be, which includes keeping their composure at all times and acting in such a way that will not harm others or put their health in jeopardy.

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  64. The moral standards we apply to medical practitioners should not be higher than the moral standards we apply to other people; rather, being professionals in their field our expectation for them to always adhere to these standards under all circumstances is what separates them. In our society, all members are presumed to have an inherent moral capacity and to act accordingly by it, regardless of race, class, etc. For this, the moral standards of society apply to the whole, not just a particular subset.

    In this specific case, these medical professionals violated the moral principles of autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence. The violation of such moral standards throughout society is not surprising, as it remains more comprehensible when a layperson disregards these moral standards. However, as medical professionals operating under an oath, it is their obligation to absolutely ensure moral standards are abided by. Higher moral standards should not be desired from them simply because of their title, but rather the same moral standards that govern that society and that occupation should be expected met, with no mistakes. As medical professionals, their expectations are raised for their compliance to moral standards; the standards themselves need not be applied higher in an already morally just society.

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  65. Medical professionals should be held to a higher moral standard in the work place. They have greater responsibilities to the people they serve, as they directly affect people's health. In this article, it is clear that the doctors acted in an immature way, with extreme consequences. The family placed their trust in these two doctors to act in a professional way and this trust was violated. The doctors acted with seeming disregard for the female patient, instead focusing on their personal differences. Although it is true that doctors are only human, when lives are at stake we must hold them to a higher standard.

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  66. Simply put, there should undoubtedly be certain expectations and codes of conduct in which all types of medical professionals should adhere to. Whether it be and EMT, a Paramedic, Physicians Assistant or Physician, we must strive to hold all medical professionals to the highest standard in society since they are the ones who are looking after the wellbeing of others.
    The expectations of physicians should only be heightened considering their higher professional position compared to most occupations. Physicians are unarguably the top leaders in today's society, and although every human being should be held to the same standards on an ethical basis, we must realize that it's impossible to do so.
    With great success and accomplishment comes great expectation, and in this case, the physician chose to break not only his own moral and obligatory code, but the principles of autonomy and beneficence as well. The patient should be able to trust the doctor with his/her life, as well as the babies life, and although the physician may have been dealing with a great amount of stress, acts of this selfishness and maleficence should not be tolerated. We cannot have immoral practitioners when dealing with something as serious as the physical and mental wellbeing of a patient.
    Physicians are paragons of medical success, and should be accountable for higher reputations and ethical standards.

    -Ryan S.

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  67. I do not necessary believe that doctors and medical practitioners ought to hold a higher moral standards than those in other professions, however, they ought to adhere to these codes of behavior more strictly and intensively since their jobs deal with something vulnerable and irreversible, a human's life.

    In everyday life, each individual is expected to conform to a set of shared moral standards in order for society to goes on, for example, we should respect and/or have courtesy for others. Because medical practitioners usually regard as prestigious people that does not mean they are demanded, by society, to be more respectful than others. A gardener ought to be respectful as much as a doctor ought to be.

    However, when it comes to work setting, in the hospital or clinic particularly where medical practitioners deal and handle lives and well being of others, it is then that they oblige to conduct and act according to 'the same' moral standards but more strictly and seriously. These people have chosen a career that put themselves into a position that requires expertise, professionalism, trust and great responsibility. They have to understand that at work, it is critical to uphold moral standards more intensively than they might need to in their own time.

    Ming Onsri

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  68. Medical professionals are and should be held to a higher standard of behavior. When we walk into a physician's office, most of us automatically judge their character. Because they are providers, we expect that they are people that we can trust with our lives. If we were uncertain about their overall makeup, we are not as likely to trust them as our providers.

    After Medical School, the "Hypocratic Oath" is taken which states that they are, from that moment on, medical professionals and should act as such. They are obligated to not only care for their patient but also to separate their professional life from their personal life. If they have situations in their life that are stressful, they ought not to allow them to cross over into their life as a primary care provider. As a physician or any health care provider, the number one duty is to care for their patients. When something like a personal dispute gets in the way, they are not fulfilling their main obligation. I believe it is just to hold physicians to a higher standard ultimately because they should honor their main duty, which is caring for others.

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  69. I am not sure that moral standards are the issue so much as professional standards in this scenario. What the two doctors did would have been unacceptable in an office job as well; the fact that this unfortunate woman was relying on them to deliver her baby when they decided to throw a fit just makes things that much worse. Even if doctors are not held to a higher moral standard than the general population, they should at least be expected to refrain from letting their own personal issues distract them from giving their patients the care that they need and deserve. These doctors, obviously, are not holding themselves to very high professional or moral standards. One of the doctors even goes so far as to try to make excuses for his behavior, claiming that there was no link between the fight and the complications. I do not think that it is realistic to hold physicians to a higher moral standard than the rest of us, but the behavior of these two doctors is inexcusable.

    - Rachel Corrado

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  70. I would not say that doctors should have higher moral standards than other people in general, per se, but I do believe that they should have high moral standards in the workplace, where they are being acknowledged as professional experts. They should conduct themselves in the service of their patients, namely, with proper etiquette and sensitivity.

    Having been patients, we know that we look to respect our doctors and believe in their competence. We may not like them because we do not like being patients, but mostly we are confused and searching for guidance, knowledge, and the right direction in which to handle our medicinal needs. If our doctor is our “rock” in which we invest our trust and in with whom we find comfort by their mere presence, we can be confident that they will place our needs and concerns as a top priority.

    If our doctor is letting his or her personal details interfere with providing us such reassurance and mutual respect, we will not be at ease in his or her hands and may move to another institution where we can find it. Doctors should exhibit professional and therefore personal integrity, because in doing so they will have the respect of their patients and colleagues, which in turn will increase the efficiency and productivity of their healthcare. Had this been the case here, unnecessary suffering of the patient as well as of the hospital's reputation may have been avoided.

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  71. I believe doctors should be held to higher moral standards than people in other professions. After all, they are in the 'business of saving lives', and as such, are responsible for those lives - they play God on a regular basis! The responsibility associated with this profession is heightened by the fact that, in this era, a doctor usually knows much more about patients ailments than patients and their families know. In most cases, patients trust their physicians blindly, and those who choose this profession should have moral standards high enough to appreciate that. In this case, neither the woman involved nor her husband had the expertise necessary to deliver her baby safe, and the two doctors who did have that expertise completely disregarded her needs. Even if their fight did not directly cause damage to the baby, their lack of moral responsibility certainly did. Any professional should leave their personal life outside the work place; physicians should set a solid example of professional, moral behavior.

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  72. I believe that doctor could potentially risk his or her patient's life if he or she choose to act immorally. The fact that they are doctors does not exclude them from normal human emotions and lapses of judgement. I would be really torn to argue the doctor should be judged as acting in accordance with moral standards by saving a life. In Aristotle's perspective, health is a balance and his principle could be applied here.

    Handi Wu

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  73. The impetus forcing the physician to act while at work is unethical. A higher moral standard is required in this situation. No other profession takes an oath before practicing shows the gravity of the responsibilities of this profession. The Hippocratic Oath specifically says physicians have special obligations to all my fellow human beings, therefore need to make the patients' welfare their main priority. Even without professionalism, it is common sense and out of mutual respect for physicians to act officiously and devote all their energy to their patients because patients had trusted them with their lives. Physicians should recognize the peril the profession and society are under when their people fail ethically, teach and try to uphold a higher moral standard. There is a bigger issue needs to addressed. Assume moral systems exist to guide inter-personal relationships and protect society's integrity, and assume moral systems evolved to appropriately meet the needs of the societies they serve.

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  74. I don't think it's unrealistic for doctors to be held to higher expectations than the average person. It is part of their practice to be at least somewhat accountable for the lives of the people under their care and therefore, since they have greater concerns and responsibility than the average person, their moral conduct should reflect their responsibilities accordingly. Every decision they make in regards to the health of another person will affect someone other than themselves. If I decide to make an unhealthy decision, that is my own issue to deal with. If a doctor decides to drink on the job or behave in a manner that is inappropriate to his/her profession, that will affect both him/herself as well as the patients and other health professionals that he/she comes in contact with. I do agree that a doctor is only human like the rest of us but there are certain responsibilities that come with the profession that call for a greater concern for discretion and competency.

    -Farrah B.

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