Medical stewardship is a way of describing a relatively new obligation to maximize health care resources. A professionwide conversation about its meaning and value is needed.

Are we to assume that moral excellence comes automatically with one’s medical education?

Does a physician who observes a colleague acting unprofessionally have a duty to speak to that colleague about the unprofessional behavior?

A physician who is undergoing a setback in his or her private life can reassure patients and avoid losing their respect by maintaining a professional demeanor in the office.

The AMA Code of Medical Ethics’ opinions on physicians’ health and conduct.

If society values physicians because they possess valuable clinical skills and exercise those skills with a fiduciary ethic of care toward their patients, we ought to evaluate physicians on those grounds directly, rather than looking to their behavior “after hours.”

Whether a physician fancies herself a member of the Green Party or the Tea Party, he or she must obey our government’s rules in her advocacy for that cause and be extremely diligent in those increasingly rare instances when she feels herself compelled not to do so.

The profession of medicine is duty-bound to further the best interests of the public. If evidence suggests that discrimination based on sexual orientation or denial of civil marriage to GLBT couples has adverse effects on their health, physicians must oppose such practices, regardless of their personal biases.

State medical boards, tend to follow social policy as expressed in U.S. law, which designates moral turpitude outside the clinic as a cause for restricting professional licenses.

Physicians’ job satisfaction could be increased by reconnecting with the healing purpose at the core of the profession.