The Times reports that the GMC ((General Medical Council, the governing body for medical practice in the UK.)) has drawn up a code of conduct designed to prevent doctors from imposing their religious and ethical beliefs on their patients.
GMC guidelines on doctors’ beliefs include
- You must not allow any personal views about patients to prejudice your assessment of their clinical needs, [including] patient’s age, culture, disability, gender, lifestyle, marital status, race, religion, sexual orientation, or economic status
- You should not normally discuss your personal beliefs with patients unless those beliefs are directly relevant to their care
- Patients may ask you to perform, advise on, or refer them for a treatment…to which you have a conscientious objection. In such cases you must tell patients of their right to see another doctor
- You must be open with patients – both in person and in printed materials such as practice leaflets – about any treatments or procedures which you choose not to provide or arrange because of a conscientious objection, but which are not otherwise prohibited
- If your post involves arranging treatment or carrying out procedures to which you object, you should explain your concerns to your employer or contracting body
- It is not acceptable to seek to opt out of treating a patient or group of patients because of your personal beliefs or views about them
Source: General Medical Council
Not surprisingly, a bunch of Catholic and Muslim doctors are moaning. They seem not to understand that their primary duty as doctors is to their patients, not to their superstitions.