Unethical Behavior
Anita Malone
St Leo University

Unethical Behavior “In 1847 the American Medical Association (AMA) revolutionized medicine in the United States. Members of the newly formed organization, meeting in Philadelphia as the first national professional medical organization in the world, dedicated themselves to establishing uniform standards for professional education, training, and conduct” (American Medical Association, n.d.). It was during this meeting that The AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics was created and today is a “living” document that changes as the treatment, delivery and development of the medical field evolves. In the class scenario where the physician responded to his patient with an irritated and somewhat egotistical response was not necessarily medically unethical, it was however, unprofessional and lacked proper bed-side manners. According to The AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics, Opinion 8.041, “when a patient initiates a second opinion, it is inappropriate for the primary physician to terminate the patient-physician relationship solely because of the patient’s decision to obtain a second opinion” (American Medical Association, n.d.). The physician did not stop treatment, the response was uncouth. If a second opinion would not be beneficial to the patient, the physician should have explained it more thoroughly and offered to assist the patient in locating another physician and providing all the medical documents. As for being unethical with regards to manners, that is certainly a possibility. One of the primary streams of modern ethical though says we ought always to act in ways that show appropriate respect for our fellow human being (Chris MacDonald, 2002). Manners are most definitely a sign of respect, and respect is a huge aspect of ethical behavior but saying that, in this particular instance, the physician acted unethically is questionable. Individual instances of rudeness might not amount to something unethical, but a pattern of rudeness signals a worrisome level of disrespect that is both unproductive and unprofessional (Chris MacDonald, 2002). As for personal experience, being in the military, we are never given the opportunity to seek a second opinion, or I