An Ethical Dilemma
- anwilner
- Oct 20, 2021
- 1 min read
A few weeks ago, an Alabama physician announced that he would no longer treat people who refused COVID-19 vaccination. A few days later, Burke Allen interviewed me on The Big Time Talker Podcast and asked whether that doctor's action was consistent with medical ethics. Frankly, I wasn't sure, but I told him I personally wouldn't take that position. But was the Alabama physician's stance ethical?
The question troubled me so much that I enlisted Ronald Pies, MD, a Lecturer on Bioethics and Humanities at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, to help answer the question. We researched medical ethics from Hippocrates to the AMA. You can read our conclusions published on Medscape.com here:
Your comments are welcome!
I want to thank Dr. Wilner for raising this important issue in medical ethics. It is a very trying time for physicians, in so many ways, and the issue of vaccination refusal certainly complicates things for us!
Best regards,
Ronald W. Pies MD