Adopted by the 38th World Medical Assembly
Rancho Mirage, CA, USA, October 1986
and rescinded at the WMA General Assembly,
Santiago 2005
The World Medical Association, Inc., recognizing the importance
of the physician's independence and professional freedom, hereby
adopts the following declaration of principles:
Physicians must recognize and support the rights of their patients,
particularly as set forth in the World Medical Association Declaration
of Lisbon (1981).
Physicians must have the professional freedom to care for their
patients without interference. The exercise of the physician's
professional judgement and discretion in making clinical and ethical
decisions in the care and treatment of patients must be preserved
and protected.
Physicians must have the professional independence to represent
and defend the health needs of patients against all who would
deny or restrict needed care for those who are sick or injured.
Within the context of their medical practice and the care of
their patients, physicians should not be expected to administer
governmental or social priorities in the allocation of scarce
health resources. To do so would be to create a conflict of interest
with the physician's obligation to his patients, and would effectively
destroy the physician's professional independence, upon which
the patient relies.
While physicians must be conscious of the cost of medical treatment
and actively participate in cost containment efforts within medicine,
it is the physician's primary obligation to represent the interests
of the sick and injured against demands by society for cost containment
that would endanger patients' health and perhaps patients' life.
By providing independence and professional freedom for physicians
to practice medicine, a community assures the best possible health
care for its citizens, which in turn contributes to a strong and
secure society.
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