Indian Journal of Medical Ethics

CORRESPONDENCE


On ethics (1)

I hope the Forum for Medical Ethics will be able to act on the minds of at least a few doctors for the betterment of society. Unfortunately, ethics is something that cannot be injected into persons.

I am 64 years old. I have been practising in India for over eighteen years and find rapid deterioration in both the quality of medical practice and its ethics. This, in my opinion, is because there is no punishment against any trespass of rules and codes.

In fact, these days there is no punishment (only harassment) for any infraction in any field in our society. Ethics have hit a low, be it in teachers, judges, lawyers, priests, businessmen, police, government servants and, of course, politicians” Lack of merit and ethics are associated with corruption in every field.

As Dr. Shivram Karanth says, there is no pramaniktha in the actions of most persons. How true!

Shedde Prabhakarrao, Ratnakrupa, Shivbagh Road Kadri, Mangalore 575002