Korean Journal of Medical Ethics
The Korean Society for Medical Ethics
Article

의료윤리 문제에 관한 우리 나라 의사들의 의식 조사

구영모1, 권복규2, 김옥주3, 황상익4,*
Young-Mo KOO1, Bok-kyu KWON2, Ock-Joo KIM3, Sang-lk HWANG4,*
1서울대학교 의과대학 의사학교실 및 서울대학교 청학사상연구소
2서울대학교 의과대학 의사학교실
3서울대학교 의파대학 의사학교실 및 미국 하버드 대학교 과학사학파
4서울대학교 의과대학 의사학교실
1Department of History of Medicine and Medical Humanities, Seoul National University College of Medicine : Institute of Philosophy. Seoul National University
2Department of History of Medicine and Medical Humanities. Seoul National University College of Medicine
3Department of History of Medicine and Medical Humanities. Seoul National University College of Medicine ; Department of History of Science, Harvard University
4Department of History of Medicine and Medical Humanities. Seoul National University College of Medicine
*책임저자(email : hwangsi@plaza.snu.ac.kr)

ⓒ Copyright 1999 The Korean Society for Medical Ethics. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: Nov 25, 1999

ABSTRACT

In Korea there have been few studies conducted on physicians' perceptions and attitudes toward the medico-ethical problems, including informed consent, euthanasia, artificial abortion and problems having to do with human reproduction. In 1998 we administered a survey to find out the current attitudes and perceptions held by Korean physicians in these particular areas. 1,000 self-administered questionnaire including 38 questions were mailed to randomly selected members of the KMA (Korean Medical Association). We received 208 responses out of them and analyzed the data.

The survey showed that more than half of the respondents believed that it is permissible to withdraw the treatment from the hopeless patients if they or their proxy demand. Also, they approved physician-assisted suicide under certain circumstances. 42% of the physicians surveyed answered that the artificial abortion should be allowed for the purpose of family planning. This result must have something to do with the high abortion rate in Korea where the government has supported artificial abortion as a means of family planning. 35% of the surveyed endorse the organ sale, especially in the case of non-critical organs like kidney and cornea, while 58% of them deny it in any case.

On the other hand, it turns out that the problems in professional ethics (fees and charges, advertising, gender discrimination) are as serious among Korean physicians as biomedical issues themselves. The vast majority of the respondents felt sorry about the wrongdoing of their peers and pointed out that the current medical ethics education in medical schools is far from satisfaction.

Keywords: 의료윤리; 직업윤리; 생명의료윤리; 의사; 의식조사
Keywords: Medical Ethics; Professional Ethics; Biomedical Ethics; Opinion Survey