Kelly K, Moon G, Savage S P, Bradshaw Y
School of Social and Historical Studies, University of Portsmouth, England.
Soc Sci Med. 1996 Jun;42(11):1569-75. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(95)00266-9.
Police surgeons play an important role in the British criminal justice system. Professionally located between the two worlds of medicine and the law, they face ethical dilemmas which derive from the dual nature of their role. The development of the police surgeon service has seen the emergence of three further dualisms within the police surgeon role. These are the forensic-therapeutic divide, the specialist-generalist division, and the issue of dependence or independence with regard to the police. These internal dualisms are discussed and their implications explored. Attention then turns to a consideration of three issues which demonstrate the nature of the ethical dilemmas facing the British police surgeon: the particular articulation of the (police) doctor-patient relationship, the matter of consent, and the subject of confidentiality. Both these ethical issues and the nature of the police surgeon role are explored through the primary analysis of survey and interview data collected from a national sample of police surgeons and police services, and the secondary analysis of key documents on the police surgeon, the paper concludes that specific ethical guidance is needed to address the forensic aspects of the police surgeon role.
警方外科医生在英国刑事司法系统中发挥着重要作用。他们在医学和法律这两个领域之间工作，面临着源于其角色双重性质的伦理困境。警方外科医生服务的发展在该角色中又出现了另外三种二元性。这些是法医与治疗的分歧、专科医生与全科医生的区分，以及与警方相关的依赖或独立问题。本文讨论了这些内部二元性，并探讨了它们的影响。接着注意力转向对三个问题的思考，这些问题体现了英国警方外科医生所面临的伦理困境的性质：（警方）医患关系的具体表述、同意的问题以及保密的问题。本文通过对从全国范围内的警方外科医生和警察部门样本收集的调查和访谈数据进行的初步分析，以及对有关警方外科医生的关键文件进行的二次分析，探讨了这些伦理问题和警方外科医生角色的性质。文章得出结论，需要具体的伦理指导来处理警方外科医生角色中的法医方面问题。
