Friday, September 05, 2008 DOH official backs banning of doctors from doing ads
A HEALTH official on Thursday expressed support for the Philippine Medical Association's (PMA) call to ban doctors from making commercial endorsements.
Health Undersecretary Alexander Padilla said they are supporting the initiative of the PMA to prevent medical professionals from endorsing or appearing in advertisements.
According to him, doctors who appear in commercials "cheapens the profession" as well as it helps in increasing the prices of this goods.
"They should stop doing that period," he said.
Padilla said he knows that the doctors are aware of their medical ethics, which they should abide by.
On Wednesday, PMA president Dr. Rey Santos said they have amended their code of ethics in a bid to impose a ban on doctors endorsing food supplements that do not have "therapeutic claims."
Violation of the ban could cost the doctor as much as losing his or her license in the event that the Professional Regulation Commission revokes it.
For quite sometime now, several advertisements of supplement products for lung, kidney, liver, heart, blood and bone care have proliferated featuring doctors giving their manifestations. (FP/MSN/Sunnex)
