Bioethical aspects of medical practice within the context of global military crisis

Abstract

Introduction. Human civilization has not yet overcome the stage of using military conflicts as a means of solving territorial, ideological and even current religious disputes that primarily result in millions of casualties. Therefore, medical practice that tends to minimize the number of deaths is carried out within an environment dominated by chaos and insecurity and therefore the bioethical aspects are the only source of regulation the human relationships. Aim of the study. To highlight the bioethical aspects of medical practice in the context of military crisis and to rationalize the necessity of their updating in order to both optimize the medical care assistance and prevent the war crimes. Materials and methods. Scientific articles on military medicine, bioethics, sociology and scientific philosophy, journalistic investigations have been referred to. The following methods have been applied within this study: ethical, bioethical and analytical ones. Results. Medical bioethics should always be alert to preventing the influence of military or politically authoritarian persons who attempt to undermine the basic principles of medical care during the wartime for the reason of their own obscure purposes. Under military conditions, the medical staff are forced to follow the orders and perform job-related actions and duties that might result in flagrant violation of the Code of Professional Conduct. Frequently, resistance to such orders may be inevitable and may lead to excessive personal loss (own lives). Although Medical ethics deplores the existing charges, it often comes down to a passive or silent disagreement. In recent years, however, biomedical ethics has become active in accepting and supporting these alienations against the accepted standards and values of health professions, accompanied by justification for the torture, a fact that involves lack of medical assistance for the war prisoners and their forced participation as experimental subjects in testing and modernization of weapons for mass destruction. All these obviously lack an informed consent that is considered a guarantee in respecting the human rights within medical practice. Conclusions. Contrary to the popular opinion where military doctors appear as angels dressed in white coats that save human lives from the war ravages, they are in fact indispensable parts of their nation's war-making machine. As a result of the above mentioned, there is an urgent need to review the bioethical aspects of military medical practice, whereas the professional delimitation of the two aspects: both doctor and military, has become an issue of international importance in the context of a permanent increase of military conflicts worldwide.