FM10.{1-6,16-17,20,22-24,28} | Medical Ethics & Professional Conduct — Glossary

The capacity and right of a person to make informed, voluntary decisions about their own life and healthcare; in clinical ethics, respect for autonomy requires informed consent and confidentiality

A 1979 US document articulating three foundational research ethics principles: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice; directly influenced bioethics theory

The positive ethical duty to act in the patient's best interest; requires active promotion of patient welfare, calibrated to the patient's own values and goals, not merely the doctor's clinical judgment

The systematic study of ethical questions in biology, medicine, and healthcare; developed as a formal discipline in the 1970s, particularly following the Belmont Report

Actively soliciting patients through intermediaries, paid agents, or commission arrangements; prohibited under the NMC Code of Medical Ethics

One of the two foundational classical Ayurvedic texts (~200 BCE); contains a formal initiation oath for physicians emphasising patient welfare, confidentiality, continued learning, and non-discrimination

The current Indian legislation under which medical services are treated as 'services' and patients may approach Consumer Disputes Redressal Commissions for deficiency of service; replaced the 1986 Act

A functional neurological symptom disorder in which genuine neurological symptoms (paralysis, sensory loss) arise unconsciously without organic neurological disease; NOT malingering; patient does not consciously control the symptoms

The ability of a patient to understand relevant information, appreciate consequences, reason about options, and communicate a consistent choice; required for valid autonomous consent or refusal

The modern medical pledge adopted by the WMA in 1948 and most recently revised in 2017; used at Indian medical graduation ceremonies; replaced the Hippocratic Oath in modern practice

WMA guidelines for ethical conduct of clinical research, first adopted 1964 and most recently revised 2013; requires ethics committee review and distinguishes therapeutic from non-therapeutic research

The practice of paying or receiving an undisclosed commission, rebate, or benefit in return for referring a patient to another practitioner, diagnostic facility, or service; specifically prohibited as a conflict of interest that may cause patient harm

The committee of a State Medical Council or EMRB (NMC) that investigates complaints of professional misconduct; its proceedings are quasi-judicial

The fair allocation of benefits, burdens, and resources across a population; in healthcare, relates to equitable access and non-discriminatory treatment

An ethical doctrine holding that an action intended to achieve a good outcome may be permissible even if it has a foreseen but unintended harmful side-effect, provided the harm is not disproportionate and is not the intended means to the good end

The primary legal obligation of a doctor to provide competent, appropriate medical care to patients; breach may give rise to civil liability for medical negligence

The obligation of a registered medical practitioner to provide immediate life-saving care in an emergency, regardless of whether payment is available or a pre-existing relationship exists

One of the four Autonomous Boards of the NMC; responsible for maintaining the IMR, registering medical practitioners, and overseeing professional ethics and disciplinary proceedings

A condition in which a person consciously fabricates or induces illness, but the motivation is internal — to assume the sick role and receive medical attention — not external gain; a recognised psychiatric diagnosis requiring empathetic management

A synonym for dichotomy; an arrangement where referral fees are divided between the referring and receiving practitioner without the patient's knowledge

The screening test that Indian nationals with foreign medical degrees must pass to register in India; to be superseded by NExT when implemented

An ancient Greek ethical oath attributed to Hippocrates (~400 BCE); historically foundational but not administered to modern Indian medical graduates, who take a Declaration of Geneva-based oath

Research involving human subjects; governed in India by the ICMR National Ethical Guidelines 2017, New Drugs and Clinical Trial Rules 2019, and internationally by the Nuremberg Code and Declaration of Helsinki; voluntary informed consent is the absolute requirement

A clause added to the Declaration of Geneva in 2017: 'I will not use my medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat'; directly addresses participation in torture, coerced examinations, and rights violations

National Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical and Health Research Involving Human Participants, 2017 — the primary Indian regulatory framework for research ethics; requires IEC approval for all human research

The central national register of all registered medical practitioners in India, maintained by the EMRB of the NMC; a public document that can be searched to verify registration

Conduct that would be regarded by fellow registered medical practitioners as disgraceful or dishonourable; the ethical standard for penal erasure from the medical register

The legally and ethically required process of obtaining a patient's voluntary agreement to a procedure or treatment after providing adequate, comprehensible information about it

An independent committee at a medical institution that reviews and approves research protocols involving human participants; required for all biomedical research under ICMR guidelines

Indian Penal Code Section 304A: causing death by a rash or negligent act not amounting to culpable homicide; the primary criminal provision applicable to cases of medical negligence resulting in patient death

The ethical principle of fair and equitable treatment; in bioethics, primarily refers to distributive justice — fair allocation of healthcare resources — and equal treatment of patients

The voluntary, conscious fabrication or exaggeration of physical or psychological symptoms to obtain an external secondary gain (compensation, avoiding duty, obtaining controlled substances)

The former apex medical regulatory body under the IMC Act 1956; dissolved in 2020 and replaced by the NMC; should NOT be cited as the current regulatory authority

The discipline that applies ethical principles — right and wrong, benefit and harm, autonomy and authority — to the practice of medicine and the doctor-patient relationship

The branch of medicine that deals with the application of law to medicine; includes forensic medicine, medical ethics, and the legal responsibilities of medical practitioners

Breach of the standard of care owed by a doctor to a patient, causing harm; requires four elements: duty of care, breach of standard of care, causation, and damage; therapeutic misadventure is absent the breach element

The expression of medicine's ethical commitment in practice: prioritising patient welfare, maintaining competence, and upholding the social contract with the public

A planned common exit examination to replace the final MBBS examination and serve as the licensing examination; will also apply to foreign medical graduates seeking registration in India

The apex regulatory body for medicine in India under the NMC Act 2020; replaced the Medical Council of India; comprises 25 members and four Autonomous Boards

The National Medical Commission Act 2020; the operative statute governing medical regulation, education, registration, and professional conduct in India; replaced the IMC Act 1956

The NMC Code of Medical Ethics Regulations 2002, operative under the NMC Act 2020; the primary regulatory framework for professional conduct of Indian medical practitioners

The operative professional conduct standard for Indian medical practitioners, originally made under the MCI and IMC Act 1956, now operative under the NMC Act 2020; covers conduct, etiquette, and ethics

The ethical obligation to avoid causing unnecessary harm; encapsulated by primum non nocere ('first, do no harm'); requires that risks be minimised and proportionate to expected benefit

A disease that the law requires to be reported to public health authorities; reporting is mandatory and overrides professional secrecy; examples include tuberculosis, cholera, plague, typhoid

A 1947 set of ten principles for ethical human experimentation, arising from the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial; establishes voluntary informed consent as the absolute first requirement

Acting on behalf of another person (typically overriding their stated wishes) on the grounds that you know what is best for them; the ethical tension between paternalism and autonomy is central to modern medical ethics

Removal of a practitioner's name from the medical register following a finding of infamous conduct; the practitioner may not practise medicine until restored by application

Full registration granted after successful completion of internship; confers the legal right to practise medicine independently in India

A clause added to the Declaration of Geneva in 2017: 'I will attend to my own health, wellbeing and abilities in order to provide care of the highest standard'; makes physician self-care an explicit ethical duty

A principle that is binding unless overridden by a stronger competing principle in a specific situation; none of the four bioethics principles is absolute; each can be outweighed in context

Latin: 'first, do no harm'; a foundational ethical principle in medicine associated with the Hippocratic tradition; the basis of the principle of non-maleficence

The ethical approach using Beauchamp & Childress's four principles; the Declaration of Geneva embeds several of these principles — patient welfare (beneficence), autonomy, non-discrimination (justice), confidentiality

The ethical approach developed by Beauchamp and Childress using four prima facie principles — autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, justice — as a framework for analysing biomedical ethical problems

Information disclosed in a professional relationship that is protected from compelled disclosure; in India, medical privilege is recognised but is not as absolute as legal privilege under Section 126 of the Indian Evidence Act

Specific acts prohibited by the NMC Code of Medical Ethics including advertising, canvassing, dichotomy, covering unqualified practitioners, and issuing false certificates

The ethical and regulatory duty of a doctor to keep patient information confidential; applies to all information disclosed in the course of the doctor-patient relationship; not absolute — has defined exceptions

Time-limited registration granted to MBBS graduates to enable the compulsory one-year internship under supervision; does not permit independent practice

A person whose name is entered in the Indian Medical Register or a State Medical Register, conferring the legal right to practise medicine in India

The reinstatement of a practitioner's name to the medical register after penal erasure; requires an application to the Disciplinary Committee; is not automatic

The right of a competent adult patient to decline treatment, even life-saving treatment; grounded in respect for autonomy; does not apply when the patient lacks decision-making capacity

The implicit agreement between the medical profession and society: in exchange for autonomy, status, and economic privilege, the profession commits to prioritising patient welfare above its own interests; the medical oath is the formal expression of this contract

A state-level regulatory body that maintains the State Medical Register and handles registration and initial disciplinary proceedings for practitioners within its jurisdiction

The foundational text of Indian surgery attributed to Sushruta; contains ethical guidelines for surgeons emphasising purity of motive, patient welfare, compassion, and acknowledgement of the limits of knowledge

An unexpected adverse outcome from a medical procedure or treatment that was correctly performed; the adverse outcome is due to an inherent risk materialising, not to error or breach of the standard of care; distinct from medical negligence

A doctor's claimed right to withhold material information from a patient on the grounds that disclosure would harm the patient; largely rejected in modern bioethics as paternalistic; not a statutory defence in India

The freely given, adequately informed agreement of a competent person to a medical procedure or research participation; established as the primary requirement by the Nuremberg Code

A set of five clinical findings in back pain examination that indicate the presence of non-organic (psychological) components; their presence in combination suggests that symptom amplification may be contributing to reported disability

A formal disciplinary outcome where professional misconduct is found but does not reach the threshold of infamous conduct; placed on the practitioner's record in the medical register; registration is retained

The international organisation of national medical associations; adopted the Declaration of Geneva in 1948; maintains and revises it as the international medical pledge; most recent revision 2017