Military Physician Ethical Dilemmas

Introduction A subtle conflict such as the best interest of the patient and best interest of the state or military is one to handle delicately and with caution. Perhaps this type of conflict is not at all subtle. Medical ethics in peacetime is certainly not the same as medical ethics during military operations, whether humanitarian or wartime. During military operations, physicians must constantly juggle the interests of the patient with the interests of the state and military. Physicians of the armed forces must afford the same moral obligations to their patients, whether Soldiers, local nationals or the enemy, as civilian physicians. The major difference of military physicians is their extreme circumstance of military operations outside the confines of a state of the art medical facility within …show more content…
Unlike civilian physicians, military physicians have ethical obligations to their patients, the Hippocratic Oath and military guidelines. Those competing interests often weigh heavy on physicians when placed in such a quandary. They may have to decide whom to render treatment to or for whom to reserve medical resources. Therein lies the dual loyalty conflict. According to the International Dual Loyalty Working Group, dual loyalty is a clinical role conflict between professional duties to a patient and obligations, expressed or implied, real or perceived, to the interests of a third party such as an employer, insurer or the state (Borrow, 2010). Though the military physician’s ethical obligation to their patients is most important, it is quite challenging, especially in the midst of humanitarian and wartime missions. With an allegiance to both the Hippocratic Oath and military guidelines, military physicians sometime wrestle with the ethical conflict of whom to treat during