US doctors consider access to health care for all

Doctors in the United States could be required to support access to health care for everyone, if proposals currently before the American Medical Association (AMA) are passed next June.

The association's council of ethical and judicial affairs has proposed that two new statements be included in the association's “principles of medical ethics.” If passed, the changes will mark the first change in the association's principles since 1980.

The first new principle reads: “A physician shall, while caring for a patient, regard responsibility to …