title: [Medical ethics and ethicotherapy].
abstract: Elementary principles of Medical Ethics, namely the Nonmaleficience and Beneficence have not changed since antiquity till present. Not to harm the patient and give him the largest possible benefit with considering human rights and directives of true and open communication represent the basic rules in the treatment of chronic patients and in the palliative medicine. Some alternative methods, namely those used by medical doctors themselves and wrapped in scientific terms can seriously impair the patient both physically and psychically. A warning example is the ethicotherapy, one of the non-scientific methods, which induces an erroneous illusion of the association of therapy and ethics, and meanwhile it is strongly unethical.
authors.affiliation: Onkologická klinika 1. LF UK a VFN, Praha. mopatrna@seznam.cz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Opatrná
mesh_terms: D026686:Beneficence; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D013812:Therapeutics / Q000941:ethics*