PROFESSIONALISM AND HEALTH CARE IN TODAY’S CLIMATE

As professionals in health care and higher education, we bring the next generation into the health care professions and prepare learners to serve society in their chosen field. An important component of learners’ preparatory curriculum is an understanding of how the four core non-hierarchical principles of medical ethics: beneficence, non- maleficence, autonomy, and justice 1 , are the fabric of Western Medicine, and its practice. As practitioners and consumers of health care, our learners confront ethical decisions every day, balancing core respect for persons and personal autonomy with limitations on autonomous choice in health care 2 . At this moment in history, our professions’ ability to serve individuals and society, and to educate future healthcare providers, by means that align with the four core principles of medical ethics, is under threat from recent Executive Orders and actions in the United States. Executive Order 14168 (Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government) 3 , states that “gender identity” cannot be used in place of “sex”, and only two biological sexes are to be recognized. The call by other Executive Orders (Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions; Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing) 4,5 to eliminate any efforts to promote diversity and inclusion in medical research, also violates the medical ethics principles of nonmaleficence and justice, as these actively harm vulnerable populations, and are inherently inequitable.