Article Text
Abstract
The 2023 doctors’ strikes in the UK have elicited a familiar moral outcry that such strikes are morally wrong. We consider five arguments that might be thought to show doctors’ strikes are morally impermissible but show that they all fail. The most we can conclude from such arguments is that doctors’ strikes are morally permissible in a narrower range of circumstances than strikes in other sectors.
We then outline two independent but compatible justifications for doctors’ strikes, one that appeals to doctors’ interests in fair pay and working conditions and one that appeals to doctors’ duty to protect public health. We also suggest that doctors’ strikes can be supererogatory when they aim to correct a government failing in its own duty to protect public health. Finally, we assess the 2023 UK doctors’ strikes. We conclude that they are justified and there is a case for considering them supererogatory.
- Health Workforce
Data availability statement
There are no data in this work.
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Data availability statement
There are no data in this work.
Footnotes
Contributors Both authors contributed equally to the conception and direction of the article. DMcC took the lead in drafting the article. DMann provided critical feedback on multiple drafts. DMcC is the study guarantor.
Funding This study was funded by Australian Research Council (DE220101536)
Competing interests DMann has been a member of the British Medical Association since 1986.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Linked Articles
Read the full text or download the PDF:
Other content recommended for you
- Revisiting the comparison between healthcare strikes and just war
- Strikes, patient outcomes, and the cost of failing to act
- Going on strike
- Should Doctors strike?
- Healthcare strikes and the ethics of voting in ballots
- A framework for assessing the ethics of doctors' strikes
- UK doctors’ views on the implementation of the European Working Time Directive as applied to medical practice: a qualitative analysis
- Stick or twist? Career decision-making during contractual uncertainty for NHS junior doctors
- What are the consequences when doctors strike?
- Government must drop “nonsensical” demands to avoid further strikes, says BMA