Code of ethics of the American Medical Association.

  • American Medical Association.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Code of ethics of the American Medical Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    10/38 (page 12)
    AMERICAN CODE not only by the acls, but also by the words or the manner, of a physician. It is, therefore, a sacred duty to guard himself carefully in this respect, and to avoid all things which have a tendency to dis- courage the patient and to depress his spirits. § 5. A physician ought not to abandon a patient because the case is deemed incurable; for his attendance may continue e to be highly useful to the patient, and comforting to the relatives around him, even in the last period of a fatal malady, by alleviating pain and other symptoms, and by soothing mental anguish. To decline attendance under such circumstances would be sacrificing to fanciful delicacy and mistaken liberality, that moral duty, which is independent of, and far su- perior to, all pecuniary consideration. § 6. f Consultations should be promoted in dif- ficult or protracted cases, as they give rise to confidence, energy, and more enlarged views in practice. § 7. s The opportunity which a physician not unfrequently enjoys of promoting and strengthen- ing the good resolutions of his patients, suffering under the consequences of vicious conduct, ought never to be neglected. His counsels, or even remonstrances, will give satisfaction, not offence. • [See Percival's Medical EUiics, ch. ii. § 13.] « [Ikid. ch. ii. § 7.] I [Ibid. ch. ii. § 29.]