The ethics of imposing healthy professional lifestyles on professionals.

Abstract

As chief of surgery at Salubrus, a large for-profit group practice, you received notification from the board of trustees that you cannot hire a surgeon you wanted to hire because she chain-smokes cigarettes. No other physician at Salubrus smokes. At the last board meeting, you presented your objections to the healthy lifestyle policy. It is the establishment of a policy of forcing healthy lifestyles on employees, especially those involved in direct patient care. The candidate has outstanding credentials and has initiated a new revolutionary treatment for vascular disease. Your ethical stance should be?