title: The ethics of imposing healthy professional lifestyles on professionals.
abstract: As chief of surgery at Salubrus, a large for-profit group practice, you received notification from the board of trustees that you cannot hire a surgeon you wanted to hire because she chain-smokes cigarettes. No other physician at Salubrus smokes. At the last board meeting, you presented your objections to the healthy lifestyle policy. It is the establishment of a policy of forcing healthy lifestyles on employees, especially those involved in direct patient care. The candidate has outstanding credentials and has initiated a new revolutionary treatment for vascular disease. Your ethical stance should be?
authors.affiliation: The Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tex, USA. jwjones@bcm.tmc.edu
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Laurence B
authors.initials: LB
authors.lastname: McCullough
mesh_terms: D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D010560:Personnel Selection / Q000941:ethics*; D012907:Smoking