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A central theme of conventional medical ethics is the responsibility of physicians to serve principally as their patients' faithful agents. The physician should make decisions as the patient would make them if the patient had the same information and skills as the physician. Today, because advances in medical technology offer more potential to detect and treat disease than we seem willing or able to afford, society's expectations of physicians have outstripped the resources provided to deliver on those expectations. The demands of patient advocacy confront the constraints of limited budgets. In response, to constrain the growth of medical expenditures, physicians
What Kind of Life: The Limits of Medical Progress.. Ann Intern Med. ;112:718. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-112-9-718_1
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Published: Ann Intern Med. 1990;112(9):718.
DOI: 10.7326/0003-4819-112-9-718_1