{"id":4522,"date":"2023-11-27T12:12:10","date_gmt":"2023-11-27T11:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=4522"},"modified":"2023-11-27T12:12:10","modified_gmt":"2023-11-27T11:12:10","slug":"physicians-have-a-duty-to-climate-protection-but-beware-we-all-have","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2023\/11\/27\/physicians-have-a-duty-to-climate-protection-but-beware-we-all-have\/","title":{"rendered":"Physicians have a duty to climate protection, but beware: we all have!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Henk Jasper van Gils-Schmidt and Sabine Salloch.<\/p>\n

In our article, \u201cPhysicians\u00b4 duty to climate protection as an expression of their professional identity<\/a>\u201d, we argue that physicians should undertake action to protect the climate. This question has our interest, as we observe a rising numbers of calls to action to climate protection addressing physicians. Yet, we asked ourselves: Why would physicians have a moral duty that goes beyond the duty we may all share to protect the climate? And to what extend does this duty go beyond a general moral duty? In other words, it was unclear to us on what moral foundation physicians should be singled out for such a call to action.<\/p>\n

We therefore started out with researching the reasons for the calls to action and found two central ones. First, physicians are the \u201cadvocates for individual and public health\u201d and it shows ever more that climate change impacts human health. Second, the health care system itself is a carbon-emitting industry and thus contributes directly to climate change. But even though these two reasons look powerful on the surface, reflection showed us that it is not clear how a duty to climate protection actually relates to other duties the physician has. For example, part of the common understanding of being a physician is to want to provide the best care possible for one\u00b4s patients. Yet, if the \u201cbest care\u201d for the individual patient is the prescription of polluting medical products, a conflict arises between what is best for the health of the individual patient and what is best for the public health and health of future generations. So, what should a physician do?<\/p>\n

To explore this question, we opted for the neo-Kantian moral theory of Christine M. Korsgaard that puts the concept of practical identity at center stage. (Note: Other moral theories might have led to other conclusions regarding physicians\u2019 duties in the climate crisis.) Working with Korsgaard\u2019s framework, however, was particularly attractive to us as it very well mirrors the personal, existential and emotional dimensions of being a physician. If the WMA Declaration of Geneva<\/a> indicates that \u201cI SOLEMNLY PLEDGE to dedicate my life to the service of humanity\u201d this can be easily interpreted as a self-commitment not only to the individual patient the doctor is in charge of but to mankind in a wider sense.<\/p>\n

How Korsgaard\u2019s framework answers the above question (and more!) can be uncovered in our article<\/a>. Here, we\u00b4d only like to share one surprising conclusion we came to. It seems natural to think that in the daily practice of physicians the duties towards climate protection and advocating health stand in conflict with each other\u2014as the example above illustrates. However, in our analysis we found that the general duty to climate protection and the physician\u00b4s duty to advocate for the health of their patients actually can reinforce each other the moment the physician understands climate change as a health issue\u2014something that immediately bears on their identity as a physician.<\/p>\n

Note: When it is correct, as we argue, that physicians have a special moral duty to climate protection, this does not free the rest of us of the moral duty to ensure that current and future generations have a planet on which they can live a flourishing life that they find worthwhile.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Paper title<\/strong>: Physicians\u00b4duty to climate protection as an expression of their professional identity: A defense from Korsgaard\u00b4s neo-Kantian moral framework<\/a><\/p>\n

Authors<\/strong>: Henk Jasper van Gils-Schmidt1<\/sup> and Sabine Salloch2<\/sup><\/p>\n

Affiliations:<\/strong> 1) Department of Health Sciences, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg, Germany; 2) 2Institute of Ethics, History and Philosophy of Medicine, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany<\/p>\n

Competing interests<\/strong>: None declared<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Henk Jasper van Gils-Schmidt and Sabine Salloch. In our article, \u201cPhysicians\u00b4 duty to climate protection as an expression of their professional identity\u201d, we argue that physicians should undertake action to protect the climate. This question has our interest, as we observe a rising numbers of calls to action to climate protection addressing physicians. Yet, […]<\/p>\n

Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8091],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change"],"yoast_head":"\nPhysicians have a duty to climate protection, but beware: we all have! - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2023\/11\/27\/physicians-have-a-duty-to-climate-protection-but-beware-we-all-have\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Physicians have a duty to climate protection, but beware: we all have! - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Henk Jasper van Gils-Schmidt and Sabine Salloch. 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