title: [Wish-fulfilling medicine in Dutch practice. Have physicians become salesmen?].
abstract: Wish-fulfilling medicine - the use of medical technology for the prima facie non-medical wish of the patient - occurs in practice, both in and outside the Netherlands. In a recent study both GPs and plastic surgeons recalled occasions when they had fulfilled patient's non-medical wish, sometimes against their own better judgement. The question is whether this is turning physicians into salesmen? The central values of medical professional ethics, namely autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice still appear to play a central role. Neither physicians nor lay persons view physicians as salesmen. However, it appears that the balance between the importance attached to a well-considered wish of a patient and the associated risks and harms is shifting. Thus, a physician may well perform wish-fulfilling requests and still remain a good physician. However, there is certainly room for refusal.
authors: Eva C A
authors: EC
authors: Asscher
authors: Maartje H N
authors: MH
authors: Schermer
mesh_terms: D026686:Beneficence; D003132:Commerce; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D010361:Patients; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians / Q000941:ethics* / Q000523:psychology