I was drawn into a story of a patient undergoing a routine breast exam described on Blogher.com and the discomfort that occurred as the physician with less than bedside manner overzealously examined her breasts.

However, what went from a story about a borderline unethical doctor changed became much more dull fare: it became a bioethics book report. It would have been acceptable for “Medical Ethics, Bloggers, and The Ethics of Integrity” to have left blog.bioethics.net off the list of medical ethics blogs, but the real problem with the commentary was the lack of understanding that medical ethics is a discipline rather than simple rule following, the value of codes of ethics for medical practitioners, and the difference between research ethics and medical ethics itself. It would appear that the answer to the question “Why do we need medical ethics?” is to keep health care professionals in line, to be code followers. A pretty vacuous notion of medical ethics indeed.

Now, I would hardly expect just anyone to understand such nuances, but if one is going to outline bioethics for the masses–it would be important to get these details right.

Luckily for Gena Haskett, author of the post, we do agree on one thing about how we ought to think about medicine and interacting with the healthcare system. She said: “We need a common ground of acceptable and responsible behavior, particularly in a setting where humans may be required to expose themselves physically or emotionally. There has to be an understood foundation of trust, communication and respect.”

On that, my fellow blogger, we certainly can agree.

Summer Johnson, PhD