On Medical Ethics (2)

I have seen two issues of your journal [Medical Ethics 1994, 2(1) a n d 1994, 2(2)]. I found them so interesting that I could not stop before I had read through each from cover to cover. Though I am not a medical man myself, I had the good fortune to be asked by Mrs. Aruna Asaf Ali, Chairperson of the Dr. A. V. Baliga Trust, to write a short biography of the eminent Bombay surgeon, whom I knew at close quarters. One of the top surgeons of his time, Dr. Baliga (1903-l 964) was also a model of ethical behaviour in his profession. But then, in those days, medicine had not yet blossomed into good business!

Medical Ethics has much material of interest both to the medical profession and the general reader. The articles on AIDS, hysterectomy on mentally handicapped women, the recent so-called plague epidemic in the country and ethical role models for medical students and young doctors provide much food for thought. The book reviews section, the students’ page and the Oaths given on the last page should interest doctors and their patients and others interested in problems of health and-medicine.

The journal is a reminder to all that medicine is not just another profession – it is concerned with saving human lives and healing sick human beings and is therefore as much concerned with medical competence as with professional ethics.

Serious efforts should be made to see that this excellent journal reaches a wide circle of readers.