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Masked ball: Ethics, laws and financial contradictions in hungarian health care

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Abstract

Corruption is a major problem in the societies of the post-communist Central European countries. Corruption in health care has some unique characteristics undermining the efficacy of and respect for Hungarian health care. One of the forms of corruption is tipping. This highly contested phenomenon is present in most of the patient/health professional’s interactions in a sophisticated manner, raising serious ethical and legal dilemmas. The present paper analyzes tipping and other corruption-related factors, such as financial conflict of interest between industry and health care and argues that since ethical and legal considerations are often ignored in the country, patient care and clinical research are affected by these controversial issues to a great extent.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Trials Research Group, Biomedical Ethics Unit, McGill University, Montreal, Canada

    Imre Szebik MD, MSc

  2. Department of Bioethics, Institute of Behavioral Sciences, Semmelweis University, Nagyvarad ter 4, H -1089, Budapest, Hungary

    Imre Szebik MD, MSc

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  1. Imre Szebik MD, MSc
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Correspondence to Imre Szebik MD, MSc.

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Szebik, I. Masked ball: Ethics, laws and financial contradictions in hungarian health care. SCI ENG ETHICS 9, 109–124 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-003-0024-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-003-0024-y

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