But in the end, all of this really just points up the foolishness of asking physicians to make driving judgments. We are duty bound to act in the interests of our patients, not of the rest of the universe. When our professional obligation to the patient is in conflict with the interests of society at large, the questions at hand are much larger than medicine, and it is within neither our purview nor our expertise to weigh such interests against each other. Far better to have these decisions made by governing bodies who are accountable to all constituents than to put physicians in a position of making global decisions about risk and safety. We can only hope that this study and others of its ilk will be put to use in designing laws that appropriately balance rights, welfare, and utility.
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