Health, Spirituality and Medical Ethics

Background and Objectives: Medical ethics has a long history worldwide; although it is a new scientific discipline. Also, it is not just for a specific single group or discipline in a treatment team; it is the entire medical community who benefits from it. Given the importance of this issue, this study examined the viewpoints of the specialist physicians in Qom province on the most common issues in medical ethics, with the hope to take a step forward through identifying common problems and solving them. Methods: This descriptive study used the Delphi Method in which the views of the specialist physicians on the medical ethics were analyzed through two questionnaires. The first questionnaire contained some open questions, and the second one was designed to rank and rate the titles of medical ethics problems in terms of their prevalence. Results: The most common problems in medical ethics derived from the first questionnaire based on the order of priority were: secrecy, doctor-patient relationship, justice, telling the truth, privacy, informed consent, relationship with colleagues, patient's participation in treatment methods, dealing with improper treatment and interaction between the physician and treatment authorities. Conclusion: By identifying the common and more important problems based on the viewpoints of the specialist physicians in Qom province, it seems necessary to pay more attention on training in order to solve these problems.