Concerns that marketing commercializes the practice of medicine and does not respect the dignity of the profession are primitive traditional thoughts. Doctors marketing their practices is ethical provided that the communication is truthful and not misleading, deceptive, or discriminatory . On the other hand advertising that seeks to denigrate the competence of other individual professionals or group practices is always unethical.
Some state and national professional medical societies prohibited advertising in their code of ethics. In 1982, the United States Supreme Court affirmed a ruling in favor of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its determination that the prohibition on advertising contained in the American Medical Association’s code of ethics was an unlawful restraint of competition. The FTC argued that all businesses and professionals have the right to inform the public of…
