Virtual Mentor. May 2006, Volume 8, Number 05

Ethics Poll

Your doctor's personal values

The Ethics Poll is a snapshot of the opinions of interested readers.

1. Your doctor begins to discuss lifestyle-related religious and moral values with which you do not agree. The most accurate description of how you would react is:
Listen politely even though you don't agree; you might learn something.
Listen politely, say nothing, and make no future appointments with that physician.
Explain that you are not interested in hearing these ideas from him or her and ask for a referral to another physician.
Say nothing, but walk out of the office at once.

2. Do you think that you have any biases toward people because of their weight or lifestyle choices that are apparent (eg, tattoos or body piercing)?
Yes
No

3. Pharmacists who object on moral grounds to providing contraception (including the morning-after pill) should:
Be required to dispense the pills, if legally prescribed, regardless of their moral objection.
Not be required to dispense the medication, but their place of employment should be required to have someone working at all times who does not object to filling the prescription.
Not be required to dispense the medication and can fulfill the pharmacy's obligation by referring the patient to a near-by pharmacy that will fill the prescription.
Not be required to fill the prescription or to refer. Referral is participation in the act that is, to the objecting pharmacist, immoral.

View results
Poll results reflect the opinions of visitors to the site who voluntarily answer the poll questions. Those visitors do not represent a random sample of Virtual Mentor readers. The viewpoints expressed on this site are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.