Common Contracts
1 similar Social Contract contracts
ContractSocial Contract • February 26th, 2015
Bhugra refers to Cruess who suggests that medicine’s relationship with society has been seen as a contract.1 2 This understanding and mutual agreement between the medical profession and society, which is usually implicit, is also referred to as a compact, and may further imply an (unwritten) memorandum of agreement or understanding in which the scope, principles, quality and outcome of this agreement are specified.1 This implies a series of reciprocal rights and duties, privileges and obligations, as well as expectations from both sides.1 While society would grant to the profession autonomy of practice, monopoly of use of their knowledge-base, privilege of self-regulation, as well as financial and non- financial rewards, the profession is required to, in return, regard patients’ interests above their own, to assure competence of practicing members, to demonstrate probity, morality and integrity, to address issues of societal
