A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
otherwise is growing substantially.
Igainst a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
" I think we are enormously misguided, if not narcissistic, to believe that there is no amount of time out of the physician/patient relationship that 'resets' the relationship," an emergency physician wrote in response. "If 'individual patients often unquestionably submit to a physician's authority,' as an expert was quoted as saying, then we should give up on the concept of medical informed consent, as our patients clearly cannot separate themselves from the omnipotent physician/patient relationship adequately to be able to give such consent. As a profession, let's at least be logically consistent in our positions."
A recent Medscape Ethics Survey, in which more than 21,000 physicians took part, found that having intimate relations with a patient, although still taboo to most respondents, is no longer as unthinkable as it once was to a significant number of doctors.
Most participants were dead-set against a doctor dating a current patient, and many objected to a physician having intimate relations with a former patient as well, regardless of how much time may have elapsed, a position that mirrors that of the American Medical Association (AMA) and most specialty societies. Be that as it may, the survey revealed that the number of doctors who believe otherwise is growing substantially.
In the survey, 68% of participating doctors felt that having an intimate relationship with a patient, whether current or former, was unequivocally unethical and wrong. That's down from Medscape's 2010 Ethics Survey, in which 83% of the respondents took that position. While only 1% of doctors in both surveys felt that sex with a current patient was permissible, only 12% of participants in our 2010 survey believed that it was okay to date a former patient; in our most recent survey, over one fifth of the respondents (22%) felt that this was no longer taboo.
