THE RELATION BETWEEN MEDICAL ETHICS, HEALTHCARE POLICIES AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: DEONTOLOGICAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL?

Abstract

The term medical ethics is fast gaining traction. Ethics is a safe assumption in any professional field, it is of special significance in the field of healthcare where trust is the baseline and its violation a gross ethical misconduct. In the face of growing concerns about the safest haven where one is inclined to put one’s life in trusted care, it becomes that much more necessary to ensure the safety and security of the vulnerable. As suggested by the title, this paper aims to explain terms like ethics, medical ethics, healthcare, etc., meander through history to locate the idea of medical ethics in ancient times across different civilizations to the present times, examine the two approaches viz. deontological and teleological in ethics, scrutinize a couple of actual cases that highlight the point, and analyse the necessity of medical ethics as a matter of policy with watertight provisions in favour of medical ethics and serious consequences in case of violations.