TY - JOUR T1 - Professionalism eliminates religion as a proper tool for doctors rendering advice to patients JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 713 LP - 713 DO - 10.1136/medethics-2019-105703 VL - 45 IS - 11 AU - Udo Schuklenk Y1 - 2019/11/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/45/11/713.abstract N2 - Religious considerations and language do not typically belong in the professional advice rendered by a doctor to a patient. Among the rationales mounted by Greenblum and Hubbard in support of that conclusion is that religious considerations and language are incompatible with the role of doctors as public officials.1 Much as I agree with their conclusion, I take issue with this particular aspect of their analysis. It seems based on a mischaracterisation of what societal role doctors fulfil, qua doctors. What obliges doctors to communicate by means of content that is expressed in public reason-based language is not that they are public officials. Doctors as doctors are not necessarily public officials.Rather, doctors have such obligations, because they are professionals. Unlike public officials doctors are part of a profession that is to a significant extent self-governing. This holds true for all professions. The … ER -