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Opinion - Page 20

The myth of the autonomous clinician

We work through constant interaction with patients, reception staff, nurses, colleagues, and managers. Moral agency is not exercised in isolation but through negotiation, shared responsibility, and emotional labour. Ethical models that ignore this fail to describe the world in which general practice
29 April 2026
3 mins read

Doing nothing is also an option

Rabia Aftab suggests that the option of ‘doing nothing’ should be shared with patients, but is this nothing actually quite a powerful something?
3 April 2022
2 mins read

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
5 mins read

Vaccinate the world

Kath Brown argues that although Covid has exposed our long-standing domestic drivers of poor health, we simply cannot ignore global health inequalities during a global pandemic. Vaccinating the world also in all of our interests.
17 March 2022
4 mins read

Random acts of joy — Fingernails

'Perhaps a psychoanalyst would coax out of me that growing my nails is an act of quiet liberation; I can decide how long I want my nails to be, I can decide what I want to next choose for myself. taking control
12 March 2022
4 mins read

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
7 mins read
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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
4 mins read

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
3 mins read
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