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Doctors' Duty to Disclose Error: A Deontological or Kantian Ethical Analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2016

Mark Bernstein  and
Barry Brown
Mark Bernstein*
Affiliation:
Division of Neurosurgery, Toronto Western Hospital, University Health Network, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Joint Center for Bioethics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Barry Brown
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Joint Center for Bioethics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
*
Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Division of Neurosurgery, Toronto Western Hospital, 399 Bathurst Street, 4W451, Toronto, Ontario M5T2S8, Canada
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Abstract

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Medical (surgical) error is being talked about more openly and besides being the subject of retrospective reviews, is now the subject of prospective research. Disclosure of error has been a difficult issue because of fear of embarrassment for doctors in the eyes of their peers, and fear of punitive action by patients, consisting of medicolegal action and/or complaints to doctors'governing bodies. This paper examines physicians'and surgeons'duty to disclose error, from an ethical standpoint; specifically by applying the moral philosophical theory espoused by Immanuel Kant (ie. deontology). The purpose of this discourse is to apply moral philosophical analysis to a delicate but important issue which will be a matter all physicians and surgeons will have to confront, probably numerous times, in their professional careers.

Type
Review Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , May 2004 , pp. 169 - 174
Copyright
Copyright © The Canadian Journal of Neurological 2004

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