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Ethical Issues In The Military

Decent Essays

The Military has a strong and robust history of ethical education, professionalism, and leadership training. In fact the military ethos is grounded in the ethical virtues of loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, personal courage, and integrity. - Military ethics are based on a culture of high standards for personal conduct, and in many cases the military holds its members to higher standards than others in society, including those charged to oversee the military itself.

During its history the U.S. military has continuously reinforced and trained its leaders in ethics. In fact many professional military officers achieve advanced degrees from Command and Staff Colleges, NPS, or JPME where these issues are covered explicitly. So the organization does …show more content…

We have ethical responsibilities to patients that are based on a long history of legal, moral, and professional codes. Although we are called upon to follow orders, sometimes we must exercise independent judgment when faced with ethical challenges. The Defense Health Board, acting under authority of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, sought to address many of these issues in their work, “Ethical Guidelines and Practices for U.S. Military Medical Professionals Report.” The Board stressed that oversimplified expressions such as “mixed agency” or “dual loyalty” did not accurately capture the complexity of situations that military medical professionals encounter during wartime. They felt that “basic human-rights violations, including torture, inhumane treatment, and experimentation without consent, can never be justified.” Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, MD, a prominent bioethicist and former Chairmen of the President’s Council on Bioethics, has emphasized that “medical ethics begins and ends in the patient–physician relationship” and that there is no military exception to this

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