Policy Tag: Medical Profession

Adopted by the 71st WMA General Assembly (online), Cordoba, Spain, October 2020
and reaffirmed with minor revisions by the 230th WMA Council, Porto, Portugal, October 2025

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused one of the greatest challenges that health professionals have ever faced in recent decades. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), COVID-19 has exposed healthcare professionals and their social and family environment to unprecedented levels of risk.

The constant risk of infection and, in many cases, the lack of adequate material and human resources, the high number of infected, the physicians’ morbidity and mortality and the lack of human resources policies led to a physical and emotional exhaustion among health professionals.

The WMA recognises the fight of the medical profession against the pandemic and pays tribute to the physicians and other health professionals who risked and lost their lives in the effort to combat COVID-19 virus, working tirelessly to ensure the health and safety of their patients.

The WMA urges world leaders and other relevant stakeholders to learn from this major global health crisis and to demonstrate responsibility by ensuring a rapid and effective response to future pandemics. This includes strengthening the capacity and resilience of health systems, substantial and timely investment in public health systems, and a robust global surveillance programme with transparent international collaboration. To this end, the WMA reiterates the recommendations set out in its Statement on Epidemics and Pandemics.

 

Adopted by the 229th WMA Council Session, Montevideo, Uruguay, April 2025
and by the 76th WMA General Assembly, Porto, Portugal, October 2025

 

PREAMBLE

Pillars of medicine which were until recently considered unquestionable, such as scientific evidence, human dignity and solidarity, are being increasingly challenged by the expansion of ideologies and political positions that reject or deny them.

In this context, the ability of physicians to work ethically and to follow the rules of the profession is threatened, as is also the autonomy of the profession; the intervention of politics, of the judiciary system or of the police in the care process is increasingly becoming a reality in many parts of the world.

The pressure exists on physicians being forced by their governments to treat detained patients in an unethical manner. There is also outright violence against healthcare personnel and healthcare facilities in areas with armed conflicts and other emergencies.

Pressure put on the professional autonomy of the physicians and on their ability to follow their ethical rules can negatively impact the quality of the care provided, and can finally compromise the population’s trust in the profession.

The World Medical Association was founded with the explicit aim of setting the highest ethical and humanist standards for medicine throughout the world.

These standards are being challenged by ideologies and political stances that reject the societal achievements of the last 80 years.

These high ethical and humanist standards must, however, forcefully continue to be upheld by the medical profession with clear determination and strength.

 

RECOMMENDATIONS

  1. The World Medical Association and all its Constituent Members are strongly committed to upholding the ethical standards of the medical profession, as they have been established by the profession itself during the last 80 years.
  2. It is an essential role of the WMA and of its Constituent Members to advocate for a legal framework for healthcare in all our countries, which respects the ethical rules of our profession and allows practicing medicine according to them.
  3. The WMA urges governments to secure the safety and lives of health care personnel whatever the actual circumstances, thereby enabling them to fulfill their duty to help any patient in need and act according to their ethical principles.
  4. The WMA must actively advocate for the honor of the medical profession and the rights of medical personnel and of the patients wherever these are under threat.
  5. It is the duty of the WMA and of all its Constituent Members to support individual physicians and their organizations whenever their ability to follow the ethical rules set by the WMA is threatened or limited by undue political or judiciary pressure.
  6. The World Medical Association and all its Constituent Members strongly support and foster scientific, fact-based medicine, including evidence-based therapeutic and public health measures.
  7. The World Medical Association calls for respect for the independence of research, in accordance with the ethical principles imbedded in its Declaration of Helsinki.

 

Adopted by the 71st WMA General Assembly (online), Cordoba, Spain, October 2020
and reaffirmed by the 226th Council Session, Seoul, Korea, April 2024

 

On the eve of the WMA General Assembly, Córdoba 2020, we are facing an escalation of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world and an alarming exponential pressure on healthcare professionals.

The WMA and its members request that October 30 be recognised as the International Day of the Medical Profession as a tribute to the commitment of physicians to the service of humankind, to the health and well-being of their patients, in the respect the ethical values of the profession.