Physicians at War [electronic resource] : The Dual-Loyalties Challenge /
Allhoff, Fritz.editor.
There are a range of ethical issues that confront physicians in times of war, as well as some of the uses of physicians during wars. This book presents a theoretical apparatus which undergirds those debates, namely by casting physicians as being confronted with dual-loyalties during times of war. While this theoretical apparatus has already been developed in other contexts, it has not been specifically brought to bear on the ethical conflicts that attain in wars. Arguably, wars thrust physicians into ethical conflicts insofar as these wars create a tension between a physicianâ€™s obligation to heal and an obligation to serve some other good (e.g., military chain of command, national security, the greater good, etc.). Alternatively, we can debate whether this conception is appropriate. For example, one could argue that that non-medical duties cannot attach to physicians (e.g., due to nonoverlapping spheres of justice), thus abrogating the dual-loyalty challenge. Or else one could argue that these medically-trained personnel do not act qua physicians at all (but rather partisan advocates) and therefore duties that would otherwise attach to physicians do not attach here. In the first part of this book, these issues are debated. In the second part of the book, the dual-loyalties frame is used to explore various substantive debates that obtain when the military makes use of physicians. Physician involvement in torture is a heated topic, and certainly the most visible element of the debate. Also, however, we could use the dual-loyalties framework to explore issues in other arenas, such as: development of chemical and biological weapons, medical neutrality/battlefield triage, and so on. In each of these cases, the same tensions arguably exist: physicians have duties both to their patients and â€œelsewhereâ€ (which, depending on the details of the view, could be any of the above-mentioned ends).
Description based upon print version of record.
Includes bibliographical references.
Physicians and Dual-Loyalties -- Physicians at War: The Dual-Loyalties Challenge -- Dual-Loyalty and Human Rights in Health Professional Practice: Proposed Guidelines and Institutional Mechanisms -- Guidelines to Prevent the Malevolent Use of Physicians in War -- Dual Disloyalties: Law and Medical Ethics at Guantánamo Bay -- Toward a Framework for Military Health Ethics -- Physicians and Torture -- Physician Involvement in Hostile Interrogations -- Indecent Medicine Revisited: Considering Physician Involvement in Torture -- Torture and the Regulation of the Health Care Professions -- Physicians and Weapons Development -- Is Medicine a Pacifist Vocation or Should Doctors Help Build Bombs? -- The Case Against Doctor Involvement in Weapons Design and Development -- Armed Conflict and Value Conflict: Case Studies in Biological Weapons -- Ethics and the Dual-Use Dilemma in the Life Sciences -- Physicians on the Battlefield -- Triage Priorities and Military Physicians -- Medical Neutrality and Political Activism: Physicians' Roles in Conflict Situations.
There are a range of ethical issues that confront physicians in times of war, as well as some of the uses of physicians during wars. This book presents a theoretical apparatus which undergirds those debates, namely by casting physicians as being confronted with dual-loyalties during times of war. While this theoretical apparatus has already been developed in other contexts, it has not been specifically brought to bear on the ethical conflicts that attain in wars. Arguably, wars thrust physicians into ethical conflicts insofar as these wars create a tension between a physicianâ€™s obligation to heal and an obligation to serve some other good (e.g., military chain of command, national security, the greater good, etc.). Alternatively, we can debate whether this conception is appropriate. For example, one could argue that that non-medical duties cannot attach to physicians (e.g., due to nonoverlapping spheres of justice), thus abrogating the dual-loyalty challenge. Or else one could argue that these medically-trained personnel do not act qua physicians at all (but rather partisan advocates) and therefore duties that would otherwise attach to physicians do not attach here. In the first part of this book, these issues are debated. In the second part of the book, the dual-loyalties frame is used to explore various substantive debates that obtain when the military makes use of physicians. Physician involvement in torture is a heated topic, and certainly the most visible element of the debate. Also, however, we could use the dual-loyalties framework to explore issues in other arenas, such as: development of chemical and biological weapons, medical neutrality/battlefield triage, and so on. In each of these cases, the same tensions arguably exist: physicians have duties both to their patients and â€œelsewhereâ€ (which, depending on the details of the view, could be any of the above-mentioned ends).
Ethics.
Philosophy.
Ethics.
Philosophy, general.
International Library of Ethics, Law, and the New Medicine