How stable are moral judgements? A longitudinal study of context dependency in attitudes towards patient responsibility.
BMC Med Ethics
; 25(1): 36, 2024 Mar 25.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38528534
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
Whether patients' life-style should involve lower priority for treatment is a controversial question in bioethics. Less is known about clinicians' views.AIM:
To study how clinical doctors' attitudes to questions of patient responsibility and priority vary over time.METHOD:
Surveys of doctors in Norway in 2008, 2014, 2021. Questionnaires included statements about patients' lifestyle's significance for priority to care, and vignettes of priority cases (only in 2014).RESULTS:
Attitudes were fairly stable between 2008 and 2021. 17%/14% agreed that patients' lifestyle should count, while 19%/22% agreed that it should involve lower priority to scarce organs. 42/44% agreed that smokers should have lower priority. Substantially more agreed in 2014. Regression analyses showed that being male, working in hospital, and younger age increased the likelihood of agreeing.CONCLUSION:
A substantial minority of doctors agreed that lifestyle should be a priority criterion, possibly contrary to Norwegian legislation and professional ethics. The finding might be explained by the unspecified meaning of priority, increased scarcity-awareness, or socio-cultural trends towards individualism. The 2014 results indicate a framing effect; the vignettes may have primed the respondents towards accepting lifestyle as a criterion. We conclude that attitudes to normative questions are unstable and depend on context. A substantial minority of doctors seems to be positive to deprioritizing patients allegedly responsible for their illness. However, what deprioritization implies in practice is not clear.Palavras-chave
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Médicos
/
Julgamento
Limite:
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
BMC Med Ethics
Assunto da revista:
ETICA
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Noruega