ABSTRACT
Medical researchers, their supporting institutions, and governments have long recognized an ethical obligation to develop more effective medical treatments to improve public health through improving the welfare of individual patients. This effort to constantly improve the effectiveness of medical therapies may be termed the scientific imperative (SI). The SI requires individual physicians to determine for a given illness which therapy among several options is the best therapy for a particular patient. For example, patients seeking treatment for cancer of the prostate might be referred to or otherwise seek the opinions of a medical oncologist, a urological surgeon, and a radiotherapist. Each specialist may recommend a different therapy with different incumbent risks as the best therapy for prostatic
The opinions of the author expressed in this essay are personal and do not reflect those of the National Center for Ethics, the Veterans Health Administration or the federal government.
