New York, Nov 22 (IANS) Some doctors in the US are now open to a romantic or even a sexual relationship with patients, but after at least six months have elapsed since the treatment got over, a survey has revealed.
Around 10,000 American physicians were asked 20 ‘ethically thorny’ questions in a poll conducted by WebMD, an online medical consultancy, which found out that 11.7 percent admitted they could become romantically or sexually involved with a patient.
But the doctors said they waited for at least six months after treatment, the New York Post reported.
‘We shouldn’t remotely entertain romantic thoughts when we see a patient,’ one doctor said. ‘But if you ran into that person outside the office at a later date and ‘clicked’, I see no problem.’
But a whopping 83.1 percent said mixing love and medicine was taboo – with one even calling it ‘totally exploitative’.
The poll also found out that at least 23.2 percent American doctors would prolong life-support, even if ‘futile’, to appease the patient’s family.
While 17 percent said they would ‘falsify a patient’s condition’ to get insurance money, about five percent said they might cover up a mistake even if it harmed the patient.
