BENEFICENCE AND BEHAVIOR CONTROL: ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN GASTROENTEROLOGY
BENEFICENCE AND BEHAVIOR CONTROL: ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN GASTROENTEROLOGY

Summary/Abstract: The physician-patient relationship is obviously based on communication. Both the physician and the patient permanently exchange messages verbally or nonverbally. Our paper aims at emphasizing some ethical dilemmas in medicine regarding the way in which communication betrays patterns of manipulation and behavior control. A number of ethical dilemmas are presented and analyzed. They are mainly derived from the gastroenterological and hepatological medical practice. In this respect there is a constant necessity of maintaining equilibrium between the patient’s constant beneficence and his or her autonomy. But the therapeutic intervention also brings about changes in the patient’s behavior making him or her more vulnerable to the physician’s decisions. Therefore, there is a constant need for professional restraint in the medical decisions and interventional processes, bearing always in mind that the modern patient needs to be saved, not to be governed.

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