Medical Heroism

Medical heroism is the concept of supererogatory (i.e., “above and beyond”) actions on the part of medical personnel in their daily work duties. Frequently debated in the field of bioethics, and often with relevance to key emergent epidemics and pandemics and the novel risks they pose to healthcare workers, it is the ethical discussion surrounding where the line exists between a standard duty to treat accepted by medical professionals, and where their expected or enacted conduct may exceed that standard duty. The debate most frequently centers on physicians rather than nurses and other health professionals since physicians are usually required to take The Hippocratic Oath upon qualification, establishing a very clear and defined duty to treat. However, it should be noted that in some countries nurses may take The Nightingale Pledge, which is a similarly defined and prescriptive outline of their duty to treat. Regardless of whether or not a healthcare worker has taken an oath or pledge, or has otherwise had some form of formalized definition of their duty to treat, there is a recognized and important ethical debate around where “duty” becomes “heroism” within the working experiences of those in this field that requires attention and discussion, particularly at times of emergent and novel threats to life. Much of this debate is relevant to who defines that heroism, whether it is medical professionals themselves, or onlookers from society. Onlookers from society are more likely to label actions undertaken by medical professionals as heroic whether or not they exist within the standard remit of their duty to care, whereas medical professionals are far less likely to define any of their conduct as heroic, whether it exists within that remit or beyond it.