Clinically and ethically relevant questions are related to patient safety, therapeutic efficacy, equitable access, and global governance over humanity’s genetic legacy.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(12):E1079-1088. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.1079.
A more just sharing of the responsibility for contraception can only be achieved through the development of male birth control methods and reconceptualizing responsibility for contraception as shared between men and women.
When patient autonomy became a closely held value in medical ethics in the 1960s and '70s, the physician’s conscience-based right to refuse to deliver a given service began to be contested.
When women and others who have been traditionally underrepresented in medicine gain greater membership in the profession, they have a responsibility to avoid imposing a group-based viewpoint and must remain open to more collaborative thinking.
An argument that physicians who refuse to respond to emergency department calls are acting unprofessionally by declaring, in effect, that their needs are more important than those of their colleagues.