Ethics gap in surgery

Discussion of ethical issues occurs much less often in the surgical than in the medical literature. The reasons for this "ethics gap" are unknown.

Our clinical faculty ranked the ethical and legal acceptability of four treatment options in two cases of surrogate decision making. Only one option in each case was ethically and legally unacceptable (treating despite objection by the surrogate decision maker).

Surprisingly often, faculty mistakenly believed the ethically unacceptable option to be acceptable, and the legally unacceptable option to be acceptable. Surgeons were not ethically different from other physicians. Surgeons (19 of 31, 62%), however, were significantly (p < 0.05) more likely than internists (18 of 51, 35%) or pediatricians (4 of 18, 22%) to believe, mistakenly, that operating on the baby without parental consent was legally acceptable.

This pilot study did not identify why the surgical literature contains a relative dearth of ethics discussion. Broader investigations are needed, because it is important that we understand the reasons for the gap. Surgeons' strong ethic of personal responsibility for patients' welfare should be transmitted to young trainees, a goal best achieved by discussing and writing about ethics. Moreover, our legal data suggest that a gap may also exist between surgeons and other physicians in understanding health law.