Medical ethics

Medical ethics is a system of moral principles that apply values to the practice of clinical medicine and in scientific research.

Quotes

Using these sources of guidance and others, seven main principles have been described as guiding the conduct of ethical research: Social and clinical value, Scientific validity, Fair subject selection, Favorable risk-benefit ratio, Independent review, Informed consent, Respect for potential and enrolled subjects.
- NIH Clinical Center, "Ethics in Clinical Research" (March 27, 2018)

Medical necessity has traditionally meant targeting disease processes to achieve physiological health. Transgender treatments such as hormones instead disrupt physiological health to achieve a body that aligns with a patient’s mental state. This new direction mandates that doctors adjust their risk assessment to accept iatrogenic side effects as a necessary cost of treating patients. This is in stark contrast to the traditional “do no harm” approach that doctors are bound to by oath, cracking medicine’s foundational integrity.
…It remains to be seen if medicine will continue to operate within the boundaries of healing disease under an oath to “first, do not harm,” or be pushed into unchartered territory that dismisses the potential of causing disease [and infertility] in an effort to heal the psyche of gender-distressed children.
- Aida Cerundolo, "Landmark Transgender SCOTUS Case Could Reshape A Doctor’s Oath To ‘Do No Harm’", The Federalist (December 13, 2024)