Ethics

            I think we have become a nation of liars and cheats.  Maybe it was always this way, but I doubt it.  Maybe the numbers were smaller and less visible in the past, but I doubt that, too.

            I am a physician and I have moral and ethics questions, for everyone.  I’ll start with doctors.  Is it ethical for a doctor to withhold a diagnosis from an insurance company?  Is it ethical for a physician to do a pre-employment exam on an unemployed patient and pass the patient, when he really doesn’t meet the standards?  Is it ethical for a physician to examine parts of the patient’s body unrelated to the presenting illness or injury, just so he can claim a more involved exam for a more complicated case and get better reimbursement from an insurance company?  Is it ethical for a physician to double a prescription, and tell the patient to take one-half the dose, so the pills last twice as long for the same price?  Is it ethical for a physician to give a prescription for antibiotics to a patient when he is certain the patient has a viral infection and the medication will not help cure the patient, even though the patient wants the drug?  Is it ethical for a physician to give a patient potent pain medication when the patient does not appear to be in severe pain?

Well, if you have the answers to those questions, try these: Is it ethical for an insurance company to set its reimbursement rates so low that physicians feel justified in cheating on the amount of work they do?  Is it ethical for an insurance company to refuse to insure people likely to be sick or injured, or who develop a medical condition?  Is it ethical for an insurance company to price drug reimbursement so low that patients and doctors feel justified in doubling or tripling prescriptions? 

Is it ethical for drug companies to vary the price of their drugs depending upon what people can pay for them?

Is it ethical for the government to make rules that are too expensive to enforce, cannot be enforced, or are open to selective enforcement?  Is it ethical for the government to make rules, require doctors to follow them, then refuse to back up the physician if he follows their guidelines when sued by patients because they are suddenly not employable?  Is it ethical for the IRS to have such a complicated system for collecting taxes that no one understands it, and it is open to selective enforcement?

Is it ethical for lawyers to start class action suits and collect all the money without paying the ‘injured parties?’  Is it ethical for lawyers to try civil suits in front of jurors who are incapable of understanding the science, the engineering, or the laws involved?

Is it ethical for movie theaters to charge so much for candy and drinks that patrons sneak food into the theaters?  Is it ethical for patrons to hide candy in their purses?

Is it ethical for airlines to nickel and dime passengers for what used to be included in a flight ticket: meals, blankets, baggage?

Is it ethical for political parties to paint their rivals as the devil, knowing they are honest men struggling with making decisions like the rest of us?

The examples could go on forever.  Add your own to the mix.  Is this just the way life is?  Or have we turned into a society of cheats?  I think these and every other group of professionals need to look at their actions.  This behavior is dishonest.