Ethical issues in infectious diseases.

Ethical behavior is an essential component of professional life. Developments in medical science continually test society's concepts of right and wrong, of virtue and morality. Ethical conflicts will be played out in public with greater frequency and intensity. Physicians will be challenged to maintain high standards of ethical conduct despite the pressures that personal preference, society, and government may exert. We do not present neat solutions to ethical conflicts, but we describe a framework for understanding models of physician behavior and outline an approach to the analysis of problems.