Abstract
Background: Developing countries face major challenges to their healthcare system such as resource scarcity and reduced patient autonomy amongst women. The strained healthcare system often leads doctors to compromise ethical protocols and reduce their standard of care.
Aims: To explain why medical ethics are important for healthcare professionals in the context of resource-poor countries.
Findings: Many healthcare professionals lack adequate knowledge of medical ethics in developing countries. In addition, doctors make difficult decisions such as patient prioritization and resource allocation without clear ethical guidance or protocols. Women also face diminished patient autonomy in developing countries, which has been linked to reduced reproductive health outcomes.
Discussion: There are adverse consequences for the lack of ethical guidance in resource-poor environments. For example, doctors repeatedly report witnessing deaths and disabilities amongst patients due to the strained healthcare system. In addition, healthcare professionals face moral distress which hinder job satisfaction. Cultural and religious values also influence the healthcare decisions of patients, which is a major gap in the literature that needs further research attention.
Conclusion: Through the discussion of healthcare challenges in the context of the four main principles of medical ethics, it is clear that medical ethics plays a major role in reducing adverse consequences amongst patients and moral distress amongst healthcare professionals. However, more research should be directed towards ethical protocols which consider cultural and religious values of developing countries.
