Abstract

A 30-year-old patient comes to the doctor for a long-standing problem of dyspepsia and epigastric pain. At the end of the consultation, he tells the doctor that the condition he presents, prevented him from attending his work for three days and asks him to certify this inability to avoid a disciplinary sanction or a dismissal for just cause from the institution where he works. The doctor issues a disability for the three days prior to the day of the consultation and as he considers that the diagnosis of chronic gastritis is not enough to justify the disability, he writes down in the document as diagnosis “gastro-intestinal bleeding under study”. The patient thanks the doctor for issuing this certificate. An ethical analysis of the so-called medical certificates of compliance is carried out.