Ethical problem: love relationships between doctors and patients
The sexual relationship with a current patient is unequivocally prohibited in all codes of medical ethics, going back to the Hippocratic oath: “In each house where I will come only for the good of my patients, keeping myself away from all malicious. doing and all seduction and especially of the pleasures of love with women or men ”.
However, is it a serious breach of ethical standards if, as in this case, there is no continuous medical-patient relationship? According to the ACP Ethics Manual, a sexual relationship with a former patient is not ethical if the doctor ‘uses or exploits trust, knowledge, emotions or influence derived from the previous professional relationship’.
Although these standards articulated by the Medical Association in most countries and others focus on the possible exploitation of the individual patient. There are also clinical and moral dangers for doctors, therefore it is to reject the possibility that clinical interaction can lead to romance.
Can a patient trust a doctor who signs of physical taste?
Patients cannot feel completely safe with a doctor if they believe there is a small possibility that the doctor is contemplating a romantic relationship. Therefore, doctors must remain closed to the possibility of such participation with patients to address all meetings in a completely professional way.
If a patient and a doctor do not agree on whether an intimate relationship involves the exploitation of an earlier professional interaction, then, with few exceptions, the patient’s judgment must prevail and prevail.
In the event that a relationship with a patient will begin and this becomes problematic, a disciplinary committee that reviews this case, will have to conclude that there was a violation of professional standards. Doing otherwise would not show enough seriousness to maintain strict professional limits. He would do this with some discomfort, because he would probably mean that in future license or credential requests, the doctor would have to inform that he had been the subject of disciplinary action and explain the details.
It is impossible to define exact limits between acceptable and unacceptable behavior in this area. It could, for example, reach a different conclusion if the clinical interaction implied one or two minutes to remove a splinter from a finger, instead of a discussion about the patient’s emotional tensions. In practice, doctors must assume that any previous doctor-patient relationship is incompatible with a subsequent sexual relationship. But we can all imagine exceptions where the relationship was trivial/or distant over time.
The best in these cases, to remain firm in ethical principles and leave love relationships outside the offices.
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