Introduction to Medical Ethics: Patient's Interest First (2nd Edition) Book

Throughout history, men have repeatedly made judgments regarding their own conduct and that of their fellow men. Some acts have been judged to be right or good, while other acts have been denounced as wrong or evil. Ethical judgment in medicine, as in other areas of life, is an attempt to distinguish between good and bad conduct.

This book is based on three lectures given by the author as the Medical Director of Eye Clinic Singapura International. The first lecture was an address delivered to medical undergraduates at the National University of Singapore in 1975. The second was a Commonwealth Medical Association lecture delivered a decade ago. The third was a Singapore Medical Association lecture delivered in 1981. This volume, emphasizing the principles of medical ethics, has been kept simple and brief, and it is hoped that it will make interesting reading for both medical professionals and the general public.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Anji Wall, PhD(Saint Louis University)
Description:This small book contains the author's insights into a variety of issues ranging from being a good doctor to medicine in Singapore. Each page is an artistic creation, containing one to two sentences of text.
Purpose:His purpose is to provide a simple introduction to medical ethics, with a particular focus on educating students and young doctors. While this is a worthy objective, the book does not meet this goal for several reasons, including an absence of references and a lack of analysis of the issues.
Audience:The book is intended for those beginning their studies in bioethics. While the author is a prolific writer and renowned eye surgeon, his claim in the introduction that, "ethics is therefore a concept with no compelling force other than popular opinion," is not a view most in bioethics would like to use to orient newcomers to the field.
Features:A myriad of issues is covered, including what makes a good doctor, medicine in Singapore, excellence and finances in medicine, technology, and relationships with colleagues, patients, and society. This book is succinct, and can be read in a matter of minutes. It provides several questions that are worth considering, such as who will pay for increasing healthcare costs, and how should a physician deal with a patient who is a pilot and has epilepsy. However, the author does not analyze these issues in detail, except to occasionally provide a sentence about what he believes to be the case. The unique presentation, where each page provides one to two sentences, with varying sizes and styles of font, may be aesthetically pleasing to some readers.
Assessment:This book is best viewed as conveying personal insights and wisdom from an experienced physician. However, it is not a good resource for medical students and young doctors in search of a brief introduction to the field of medical ethics. For students seeking a brief introduction to medical ethics, Practical Ethics for Students, Interns, and Residents: A Short Reference Manual, 2nd edition, Junkerman and Schiedermayer (University of Chicago Press, 1998), is a much more appropriate book.