摘要：Despite the dissemination of principles of medical ethics in prisons, formulated and advocated by numerous international organizations, health care professionals in prisons all over the world continue to infringe these principles because of perceived or real dual loyalty to patients and prison authorities. Health care professionals and nonmedical prison staff need greater awareness of and training in medical ethics and prisoner human rights. All parties should accept integration of prison health services with public health services. Health care workers in prison should act exclusively as caregivers, and medical tasks required by the prosecution, court, or security system should be carried out by medical professionals not involved in the care of prisoners. DUAL LOYALTY IS AN ETHICAL dilemma commonly encountered by health care professionals caring for persons in custody. 1,2 Dual loyalty may be defined as clinical role conflict between professional duties to a patient and obligations, express or implied, to the interests of a third party such as an employer, an insurer, or the state. 1 The dual loyalty practitioners most commonly face in prison is between their patients and the prison administration or the state authority. 1 We aim to shed light on the problem of dual loyalty in prison health care and to identify measures to reduce and solve the problem.
