International Journal of Health Policy and Management

International Journal of Health Policy and Management

A Doctor’s First, and Last, Responsibility is to Care Comment on “Denial of Treatment to Obese Patients—the Wrong Policy on Personal Responsibility for Health”

Document Type : Commentary

Author
Lachlan Forrow
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
10.15171/ijhpm.2013.48
Abstract
The obesity epidemic raises important and complex issues for clinicians and policy-makers, such as what clinical and public health measures will be most effective and most ethically-sound. While Nir Eyal’s analysis of these issues is very helpful and while he correctly concludes that “conditioning the very aid that patients need in order to become healthier on success in becoming healthier” is wrong, further discussions of these issues must include unequivocal support for safeguarding the fundamental moral basis of the doctor-patient relationship. Regardless of any patients’ failures to demonstrate effective responsibility for their own health, each patient needs and deserves a physician whose caring is never in doubt. Policy- makers need to ensure that our health systems always make this a top priority. 
Keywords
Obesity
Doctor-Patient Relationship
Caring
Moral Responsibility
Subjects
1. Eyal N. Denial of treatment to obese patients—the wrong policy on personal responsibility for health. International Journal of Health Policy and Management 2013; 1: 107–10. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2013.18
 
 

  • Received Date 16 September 2013
  • Revised Date 29 September 2013
  • Accepted Date 27 September 2013
  • First Published Date 29 September 2013
  • Published Date 29 September 2013