Turkish Journal of
GERIATRICS

Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi Deontoloji Anabilim Dalı - ANKARA As it is generally accepted, geriatry is a multidisiplinary field which deals with the health problems of people who are 65 years old and above. As far as our country is concerned, geriatry is an extremely new area. This field, especially in terms of physician-patient relationship and the allocation of scarce resources in medical practice, gives way to various ethical problems. In this article, how aging phenomenon should be seen in terms of medical ethics is dealt with, and in addition, the result of a qualitative research involving physician-patient relationship about the subjet matter is discussed. A research on the effect of some variables (patients' gender, their economic level, their religious beliefs and their age) on physician-patient relationship was conducted. 524 physicians were chosen as respondents to a questionnaire involving 16 questions. Approximately 10 % of the sample stated that the age of patient was an important factor in physician patient attitudes. This research is an appraisal of a condition; that patients could be descriminated against, as revealed in this survey is, however, interesting. Keywords : Medical ethics, Aging, Physician-patient relationship, Attitudes, Discrimination