<i>Medical ethics and advertisement</i>
Photo: STAR
Recently a letter was published in The Daily Star drawing the attention of all with comments on the Ethical Aspects of the medical profession. He is right that medical profession is different from others as a human service within the framework of strong ethical guidelines. It is not a mere provider of service commodities in exchange of money or price, rather beyond that. Advertisements on medical practice and service that are common today are more reflective of general trading. There is dire lack of agreed consensus based moral code of conduct or guidelines in any arena where human interactions take place. Moreover, the little which is there is fast evaporating. Medical practice is one of them. It has been expected that a government should be the prime mover of this matter. But the government of Bangladesh has endorsed the present commercialisation process of the medical practice by imposing VAT on specialized medical practice. This is something new. Nobody in the country has questioned or raised any voice about its moral aspect. A couple of years ago, the government imposed VAT on diagnostic labs, private clinics and hospitals without any response from any quarter. So, if this is a commercial venture it will follow the commercial culture and one of them is advertisement. Can we question that?
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