Rules of conscience

doi:10.1136/bmj.b1972

Published 14 May 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1972
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1972

Editor's Choice

Rules of conscience

Fiona Godlee, editor, BMJ

fgodlee@bmj.com

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

How often this week have we heard the phrase "but I was onlyfollowing the rules" as details of MPs’ expense claimswere splashed across the media? They may have been followingthe rules but we expected something better: that they wouldfollow their consciences.

Just obeying the rules has long been insufficient for doctors.The judges at Nuremberg made clear that obeying commands fromsuperiors didn’t remove personal accountability. Doctorscouldn’t deviate from their ethical obligations even ifa country’s laws allowed or demanded otherwise. The WorldMedical Association is meeting as I write. Its most noteworthycontribution has been the drafting of the Helsinki Declarationon Ethical Principles for Medical Research Involving Human Subjects.Both this and the World Medical Association’s InternationalCode of Ethics contain the crucial statement that a doctor’sor investigator’s conscience and duty of care must transcendnational laws.

So deeply ingrained is this . . . [Full text of this article]

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