Physicians need to exhaust every possible alternative to bring about political changes before resorting to breaking the law as an act of civil disobedience.
Patients with dementia need social supports and opportunities and acceptance of their disability in order to feel hopeful despite their functional decline.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(7):649-655. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.7.ecas2-1707.
Invoking one’s medical training when presenting an opinion on a topic about which one has no expertise is simply cloaking personal one’s views in the mantle of respectability that being a doctor provides.
Unless we build bridges between our clinical work with patients and the public health mission that Virchow prescribed for us, we are doomed to futility in our efforts to help our patients.