Laws that Conflict with the Ethics of Medicine: What Should Doctors Do?

Abstract

This past July, five professional societies, whose members together provide the majority of clinical care in the United States, published a statement objecting to "inappropriate legislative interference" with the physician-patient relationship and reiterated the importance of "putting patients' best interests first." Such a collective response is helpful, but given the apparently growing interest among legislators in legislating aspects of physician-patient communications, individual physicians, too, may have to face this problem. What should a physician do when confronted with a law that attempts to intervene in the doctor-patient relationship in a way that the physician believes undercuts good medical care?