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BJGP Long Read/Opinion

Why we must stop “consenting the patient”

Slight changes in phraseology can dramatically alter the central meaning of a vitally important principle.  By “consenting the patient” instead of “seeking meaningful consent,” the right of our patients to be involved in choices about their treatment and care... is exchanged with

30 April 2023
14 mins read
Book review

Would You Kill The Fat Man? The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us About Right and Wrong

In 'Would you kill the fat man?' Edmonds takes a well-known philosophical thought experiment – commonly known as the ‘trolley problem,’ and explores it and its various iterations in a fun, fresh, stimulating read.

14 April 2023
9 mins read
BJGP Long Read

Ethical issues in crowdfunding for medical treatment

Crowdfunding of direct medical costs raises some ethical issues which may legitimately concern health professionals and should concern regulators. Kathryn Millard explores the key issues.

6 April 2023
16 mins read
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

It’s about time: A conundrum in General Practice

Foell and colleagues argue that assembly-line approaches in manufacturing rely on accurately measuring the time it takes to perform tasks in a digitalised workplace. They juxtapose this with the concept of time as the time it takes in the mystery of General

27 February 2023
19 mins read
BJGP Long Read/Coronavirus/Opinion

Ethics, COVID-19, and the common cold: Three examples of duties in tension with public health

Richard Armitage highlights a selection of issues in tension with public health and respiratory communicable diseases both pre and post the outbreak of COVID-19.

30 January 2023
17 mins read
BJGP Long Read/International/Opinion

The art and science of effective giving

Assessing the effectiveness of each charitable project and directing financial donations to the one that ranks highest is certainly a task of gargantuan proportions. Richard Armitage explains.

19 December 2022
15 mins read
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

Replacing one dichotomy with another? Suggested revisions to a definition of health

While various definitions of health have been offered over recent centuries, the search for an enduring and completely satisfying definition has proven frustratingly elusive.  Richard Armitage wrestles with one of the most recent and promising definitions.

27 November 2022
17 mins read
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

Turning the clocks back an hour: extra time in bed or maybe something more?

The clocks going back as we descend into winter each year generates an additional hour that we generally choose to spend asleep.  A poignant philosophical reflection on time.

20 November 2022
12 mins read
Bright Ideas and Innovation

The cliff and the bog

You need to keep going, but stray too far to the left and you’ll be over the cliff edge before you know it; go too far to the right and you’ll be bogged down, and who knows what state you’ll be in

11 November 2022
9 mins read
1
BJGP Long Read

The intelligence-wisdom gap, and the urgent need to close it

Due to the accelerating power of our technological arsenal, and the contrasting stasis of our professional wisdom, the intelligence-wisdom gap is expanding at a blistering pace.  With formidable technologies on the scientific horizon – nanotechnology, CRISPR, and general-purpose AI – the necessity

7 November 2022
18 mins read
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

Healthcare workers balloting for strike action – no easy choice

Should healthcare professionals ever strike?  For some healthcare professionals, going on strike crosses a professional and moral line. Nada Khan explores the debate.

3 November 2022
11 mins read
BJGP Long Read/Stories

An ethical dilemma at age 95

Tom Brett had known Martha as a patient for fifteen years. Widowed for over 25 years, she had moved from the family farm to settle in the city close to her children...

26 October 2022
7 mins read
3
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

‘Agents,’ not ‘patients,’ as the beneficiaries of general practice

Richard Armitage suggests it is right for GPs to primarily regard their beneficiaries as ‘agents’ rather than ‘patients’ in the majority of general practice consultations.

24 October 2022
11 mins read
AiT/BJGP Long Read/Opinion

Should we be teaching doctors to be better patients?

Increased dialogue about the unique nuances of physicians adopting the role of ‘patient’ should be supported throughout medical training, argues Isabella de Vere Hunt.

15 October 2022
8 mins read
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

The suicide hierarchy

Austin O'Carroll critiques a moralistic definition of suicide that culminates in a unjust hierarchy of worthiness for compassion and support. Seeing beyond intention to the causes of despair may be more helpful

24 August 2022
15 mins read
1
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

Should GPs have to teach? -a view from the Oath

John Spicer and Carwyn Hooper unpack the Hippocratic duty to teach for 21st century primary care.

16 August 2022
12 mins read
2
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

Crowdfunded cancer care in the UK -An ethical challenge

Rebecca te Water Naudé and Peter Young suggest that GPs may have duty to discuss the pros and cons of patients who contemplate crowdfunding for cancer treatment, and outline some of the issues.

3 August 2022
19 mins read
BJGP Long Read/International/Opinion

War in Ukraine and moral distress: experiences of a British GP

Healthcare professionals deploying to and practicing in conflicts and catastrophes can experience a plethora of negative emotions due to perceived or actual transgressions of their core ethical principles. In his final Ukraine report, Richard Armitage gives a powerful personal reflection.

11 July 2022
14 mins read
2
AiT/Arts/Book review/International

The Last King of Scotland: Using a movie to explore family medicine residents’ understanding of professionalism

Movies allow health care professionals to immerse themselves in “near-true” experiences that challenge their values and principles. Beatrice Khater and Bassem Saab discuss using The Last King of Scotland in family medicine training at the American University of Beirut

29 June 2022
7 mins read
Book review/Opinion

On ‘On Bullshit’ and the removal of nutrition from words

Can a statement be a lie if if its author does not know (or want to know) that they are lying? John Spicer reviews an intriguing little book 'On Bullshit.'

17 May 2022
7 mins read
Coronavirus/Opinion

Should there be preferential healthcare for healthcare workers?

Vasumathy Sivarajasingam argues that improving healthcare for healthcare workers might improve the overall healthcare service as well as the welfare and morale of those who work for it

6 April 2022
6 mins read
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

The stoic GP

Stoic philosophy was based on the recognition that we cannot escape what is destined for us. An acceptance of inevitability has a number of implications for working as a GP. Austin O'Carroll wrestles with fate.

26 March 2022
12 mins read
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

Ethics and toxic high-workload work environments

Martin Hewett argues that because of their understanding of their “duty of care”, doctors make micro-adjustments to their behaviours and work practices to cope with the increased work. This acceptance of the increased workload has two main effects: it sets a new

10 March 2022
15 mins read
3
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

Southgate’s Sign

When you are with a patient and you get a sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach, accompanied by a wish that you were somewhere else, then you are probably facing an ethical problem, writes Peter Toon

9 March 2022
8 mins read
Coronavirus/Opinion

The ethics of self-isolation

Peter Toon reflects that removal of mandatory isolation will mean that those who have COVID take on the ethical responsibility for the protection of others. It's complicated...

23 February 2022
8 mins read
1
Opinion

Should medical opinion of doctors be banned from Twitter?

Samar Razaq reflects on truth, medical opinion and the scholarship in the age of Twitter.

20 February 2022
5 mins read
2
BJGP Long Read/International

How can we understand illness? Phenomenology and the pillar of person-centred care

Koki Kato introduces us to phenomenology as an approach to understanding patient-centred care, using his own illness-experience as a worked example.

19 February 2022
15 mins read
1
Opinion

The Second Reading of The Assisted Dying Bill in the House of Lords: A critique

Matthew Davis and Ana Worthington argue that the arguments in favour of the recent Assisted Dying Bill at its second reading in the UK House of Lords are based on flawed evidence

18 February 2022
9 mins read
1
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

Physician-assisted dying and why general practitioners all need to take a view

Helen Burn explains that because legalised physician-assisted dying would likely involve GPs, GPs should think about their views on the issue.

17 February 2022
10 mins read
1
BJGP Long Read/International/Opinion

Moral distress and euthanasia: what, if anything, can doctors learn from vets?

Felicitas Selter, Kirsten Persson, and Gerald Neitzke discuss the similarities and differences in animal and human euthanasia as a source of moral distress for the practitioner.

16 February 2022
13 mins read
1
BJGP Long Read/Opinion

A note on the ethics of the ordinary in primary healthcare

Andrew Papanikitas, Peter Toon, Paquita De Zulueta, David Misselbrook and John Spicer launch the Ethics of the Ordinary column and reflect on the field of primary care ethics and its relevance

14 February 2022
11 mins read
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