Medical Deontology

Deontology, Medical 

professional ethics of medical workers and principles of behavior of medical personnel, directed toward maximum benefit of treatment.

Medical deontology includes problems of observing medical confidentiality, the problem of the extent of the medical worker’s responsibility for the life and health of the patient, and problems of relationships of medical workers to each other. In accordance with medical deontology, in relation to the patient, the medical worker must evince maximum attention and apply all his knowledge in order to restore the patient to health or bring relief to him in his sufferings; he must convey to the patient only information about his health that will be beneficial to him and establish contact between the patient and the physician. He must avoid in the presence of the patient conversations and discussions with colleagues, personnel, and with the patient himself concerning his illness. which sometimes produce the development of iatrogenic diseases. An international code of medical ethics was ratified (1949) by the World Medical Association in Geneva.

REFERENCES

Vail’, S. S. Nekotorye voprosy vrachebnoi deontologii, 3rd ed. Leningrad, 1969.
Gromov, A. P. Vrachebnaia deontologiia a otvetstvennost’ meditsinskikh rabotnikov. Moscow, 1969.
Golubeva, G. V., and K. E. Tapilina. Vrachebnaia etika: Bibliograficheskii ukazatel’ literatury. Moscow, 1968.