Ethics and law

In the April- June issue of the Journal, you have started a new column entitled as ethics and law. This is a good development. Our readers need to know the different laws that govern health care in our country. The article has achieved that objective. The article does not mention anything about Ethics.

I have been speaking about medical ethics for the last 10- 15 years in various medical fora in the country. Whenever an ethical issue is raised, the practitioner asks for the law that supports the ethical position. If I deliver a talk on consent for HIV testing, invariably somebody will enquire about a law that requires consent before testing.

I feel that the column should be described only as “law” and not as “law and ethics”. Moreover it is presumed that a journal of ethics will take care of ethical issues and a special column on law will suffice. After all, as the law minister has noted, law is the minimum of morality. Hence, I request you to remove the word “ethics” from the column and call it “Law”.