eMJA: The Australian Medical Council draft code of professional conduct: good practice or creeping authoritarianism?

For Debate

The Australian Medical Council draft code of professional conduct: good practice or creeping authoritarianism?

Paul A Komesaroff and Ian H Kerridge

MJA 2009; 190 (4): 204-205

Abstract

In preparation for a national medical registration system, the Australian Medical Council has proposed a code of conduct (“the Code”) that provides a comprehensive description of how doctors should behave.
While containing much that will be widely acceptable to doctors, the Code has some major weaknesses:

Many of its provisions focus on values and aspirations of a very general nature and will be impossible to enforce.
It is based on a narrow, culturally specific view of medicine and ethics that does not reflect the multicultural diversity of Australian society.
It confuses the roles of ethics and law in medicine, leading to inappropriate and mistaken injunctions about decision making and responsibilities.
In place of the existing, effective, democratic and devolved (if imperfect) system of ethical and professional decision making, it threatens to establish a centralised, authoritarian regime.
Because of its limited, ideological view of medicine, its implementation would impoverish medical practice and erode the ability to respond to individual circumstances and needs.

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