Ethics and Etiquette in Biomedical Communication

What Conscience dictates to be done, Or warns me not to do; This teach me more than Hell to shun, That more than Heav'n pursue. [Alexander Pope, "Universal Prayer"] Until the past decade or so, the term medical ethics evoked visions of patient stealing, fee splitting, and self-advertising, all of which reputable physicians shunned. The spectacular discoveries by medical researchers within the recent past, however, have redirected the focus of medical ethics from mere decorum and professional etiquette to serious moral precepts involving human conscience and basic human values. Since the biomedical report, as the permanent record of the results, is an integral part of laboratory and clinical experimentation, the ethics of biomedical communication is interwoven with the ethics of biomedical science. As science and technology continue to penetrate previously unexplored