Docs Let Own Beliefs Govern Your Care

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- You expect your doctors to respect your wishes when it comes to treatment options, right? A new study suggests they may not, especially when those treatment options are morally controversial.

University of Chicago researchers surveyed more than 1,000 physicians from a wide range of specialties to see how they felt about their obligation to tell patients about morally controversial treatments or refer patients to other physicians when patients asked for treatments going against the doctor's personal ethics.

The doctors were asked about three specific treatments: sedating terminally ill patients to the point of unconsciousness, prescribing contraceptives to teenagers without parental consent, and performing abortions.

Most doctors were fine with sedating terminally ill patients, but about half of the doctors had problems with the other two. And while 86 percent did feel they should lay out all the treatment options for their patients, just 71 percent of the doctors felt obligated to refer a patient to another physician for a treatment they didn't want to provide. More than half, 63 percent, of the doctors responded it was acceptable for doctors to share their ethical concerns about treatments with patients.

Male doctors who were more religious and those who personally objected to one or more of the treatments were more likely to balk at providing patients with all their options or referring them to other physicians.

The researchers report these findings show doctors often let their personal beliefs interfere with their practice of medicine. "Patients should know that physicians are divided on this issue," reports study author Farr Curlin, M.D. He suggests "[patients] talk to their physicians up front to find out where they stand. If they anticipate areas of moral disagreement, they should try to negotiate acceptable accommodations before a crisis develops."

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SOURCE: The New England Journal of Medicine, 2007;356:593-600