The Profit Motive in Kant and Hegel

Abstract

The topic addressed in this paper may seem academic and far-fetched; its relevance though becomes apparent once we focus on the changes taking place on the medical scene today. Hitherto, medical service has been subject to several ethical considerations. One is the view that physicians have a duty to help their patients (in the sense of being ready to provide service and to provide competent service).¹ Another ethical consideration is the presumed duty on the part of third parties to ensure medical standards and the readiness on the part of physicians to provide service -such third parties normally being medical associations enjoining an ethos among their members, or the state enjoining a certain behaviour on the part of physicians, either directly or, more likely, indirectly via an authorization of the medical associations as ethos keepers. A final ethical consideration pinpoints just allocation of, and access to, treatment.