Embracing Military Medical Ethics

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Jonathan D. Moreno
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Military Medical Ethics

scholarly journals US military medical ethics in the War on Terror

2019 ◽  
Vol 165 (4) ◽  
pp. 303-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
George J Annas ◽  
S Crosby
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Medical Professionals ◽  
Ethical Guidelines ◽  
Guantanamo Bay ◽  
Us Military ◽  
Military Medical Ethics ◽  
Prison Camp ◽  
Military Physicians

Military medical ethics has been challenged by the post-11 September 2001 ‘War on Terror’. Two recurrent questions are whether military physicians are officers first or physicians first, and whether military physicians need a separate code of ethics. In this article, we focus on how the War on Terror has affected the way we have addressed these questions since 2001. Two examples frame this discussion: the use of military physicians to force-feed hunger strikers held in Guantanamo Bay prison camp, and the uncertain fate of the Department of Defense’s report on ‘Ethical Guidelines and Practices for US Military Medical Professionals’.

scholarly journals Dilemmas in Military Medical Ethics: A Call for Conceptual Clarity

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christiane Rochon
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Military Medicine ◽  
Codes Of Ethics ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
Conceptual Clarity ◽  
Ethical Conflicts ◽  
Military Medical Ethics ◽  
The Military ◽  
Military Physicians

Despite the increase in and evolving nature of armed conflicts, the ethical issues faced by military physicians working in such contexts are still rarely examined in the bioethics literature. Military physicians are members of the military, even if they are non-combatants; and their role is one of healer but also sometimes humanitarian. Some scholars wonder about the moral compatibility of being both a physician and soldier. The ethical conflicts raised in the literature regarding military physicians can be organized into three main perspectives: 1) moral problems in military medicine are particular because of the difficulty of meeting the requirements of traditional bioethical principles; 2) medical codes of ethics and international laws are not well adapted to or are too restrictive for a military context; and 3) physicians are social actors who should either be pacifists, defenders of human rights, politically neutral or promoters of peace. A review of the diverse dilemmas faced by military physicians shows that these differ substantially by level (micro, meso, macro), context and the actors involved, and that they go beyond issues of patient interests. Like medicine in general, military medicine is complex and touches on potentially contested views of the roles and obligations of the physician. Greater conceptual clarity is thus needed in discussions about military medical ethics.

scholarly journals Medical Ethics for the Military Profession

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (36) ◽  
pp. 851-866
Author(s):  
Martin Bricknell ◽  
Marina Miron
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Military Force ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Dual Loyalty ◽  
Core Concepts ◽  
Military Profession ◽  
Legal Frameworks ◽  
Military Medical Ethics ◽  
The Military

This paper summarizes medical ethics in the military profession to raise military leaders’ awareness of Military Medical Ethics (MME) and the ethical issues that may impact their medical services and personnel. First, it summarizes core concepts, including the four principles of medical ethics (autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice), the two legal frameworks for the use of military force in war, jus ad bellum and jus in bello, and the concept of dual loyalty. It then examines MME issues during conflict, in garrison healthcare, and during the COVID-19 epidemic. Finally, it concludes by arguing that MME is an important domain of military ethics that should be taught to military leaders to complement the detailed education of MME for military medical professionals.

Military Medical Ethics and Just War

2021 ◽  
pp. 13-34
Author(s):  
Michael L. Gross
Keyword(s):  
Medical Ethics ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Military Medicine ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Medical Necessity ◽  
Medical Needs ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Human Rights Abuse ◽  
Underlying Principle ◽  
Military Medical Ethics

The goal of military medicine is to conserve the fighting force necessary to prosecute just wars. Just wars are defensive or humanitarian. A defensive war protects one’s people or nation. A humanitarian war rescues a foreign, persecuted people or nation from grave human rights abuse. To provide medical care during armed conflict, military medical ethics supplements civilian medical ethics with two principles: military-medical necessity and broad beneficence. Military-medical necessity designates the medical means required to pursue national self-defense or humanitarian intervention. While clinical-medical necessity directs care to satisfy urgent medical needs, military-medical necessity utilizes medical care to satisfy the just aims of war. Military medicine may, therefore, attend the lightly wounded before the critically wounded or use medical care to win hearts and minds. The underlying principle is broad, not narrow, beneficence. The latter addresses private interests, while broad beneficence responds to the collective welfare of the political community.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document