So writes a medical ethicist from the University of Michigan Health System in a new paper that coincidentally parallels the current debate over collective bargaining for doctors and the American Medical Association's June 23 vote to form a union.
Doctors already act collectively and can do so morally.
And doctors must also remember that morality and legality are not always in line with one another. Goold presents her views in a commissioned paper to be published in a special issue of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , from Cambridge University Press in England. In the paper, she disputes some of the most common arguments against physician collective action, unionization and strikes, but puts forth other reasons why such actions might not stand on solid moral ground. For example, Goold writes, some argue that physicians should not strike because they are professionals. Airline pilots and teachers, she replies, are professionals, too, yet they are organized and routinely strike.