[Moral and ethical aspects of surgery in the octogenarian]

Through the evolution of medicine, its recent progress, in particular, in the geriatric surgery, new ethical problems arise. It is the surgeon's task to study these problems and, bearing in mind the moral and medical factors, to suggest lines of conduct. On examining the results of this surgery, it is noticeable that one cannot speak of therapeutic eagerness. On the contrary, not to resort to surgery could be assimilated with non-assistance of a person in need. Through its subjectiveness, the notion of quality of life that can be ascertained after surgery, is difficult to describe. It is for the surgeon to see that his own value judgment is not given priority. In this respect, the relation patient-surgeon is most important. The results of geriatric surgery must be critically studied, without forgetting the traditional criteria of duration of life modulated with the supplementary notion of mortality due to the senescence pathology. The scientific study of the results involve post mortem verifications, which are ethically considered as quite normal. The medical body is conscious of the fact that many of the medical progress and in particular those obtained in geriatric surgery, create economical problems. Nevertheless, our task is to push the progress of medicine as far as possible in spite of the economical pressure which it represents. Should the economists and politicians feel these costs are exaggerated, it is they who should inform the population. But, doctors have also the right to say that these economical measures are not justified, and this in relation with the objective results of the type presented today.