Rights, professional obligations, and moral disapproval

Mark R Wicclair

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

Extract
The claim that providing post-transplant care to Mr. C would compromise a physician’s moral integrity might have a consequentialist basis or it might rest on a conception of moral complicity. From a consequentialist perspective, it might be thought that refusing to provide post-transplant care would act as a disincentive for patients like Mr. C to go to China for organ transplants. That is, it might be thought that refusing to provide follow-up care will promote a reduction in unethical transplant practices, and transplant physicians might believe that they have an ethical obligation to do what they can to effectuate such a reduction. Alternatively, a physician might believe that to avoid moral complicity in an unethical practice, she must refrain from any direct or indirect participation in that practice, which includes providing post-transplant care.


Wicclair MR. Rights, professional obligations, and moral disapproval. Camb Q. Healthc Ethics. 2011;20(1):144-147.

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