On the Ethics of Medical Tourism: An Examination of Patients’ Perspectives

Medical tourism is often referred to as the act of leaving one's country to go to a country other than the home country for specific and enhanced medical care and recuperation (1). It represents the less costly private medical care for patients, mostly from developed countries that need serious surgical operations (2). Besides, many patients from less developed countries also visiting various European countries and the United States for better healthcare for some specific diagnostics and treatments which are not available in their own countries (3). Today, medical tourism is truly a global phenomenon. It is being promoted by many countries around the world; owing to the fact that the idea provides these individuals with many benefits. As for the health travelers, there are numerous options for medical vacation spots which add to their advantages and reduced healthcare costs (4). Consequently, medical tourism is not only practical but also economical for those who look to having a satisfying vacation whilst attending to their healthcare needs at the same time. For organizations and administration, medical vacation can be considered as a profitable industry to raise profit and contribute to the gross domestic product. Medical tourism is different from other services as it is about confidence and assurance in the treatment and standard of care received. The major problem in medical tourism is that there is no legal constitution for medical tourists in the providing country that might help them when things go wrong (5). Due to lack of proper government regulations as well as the insurance policies, the medical tourists' life is at risk while they visit to a foreign country for obtaining healthcare. In most cases, patients do not have precise ideas about the technical matter for the treatment. Many patients also cannot differentiate the performance in caring and curing provided by the medical service providers (6). For this reason, sometimes it becomes a potential problem for data collection as they are the main source of judging the service quality of the industry. Carman et al. has proposed a framework for pa-tient's engagement in the decision making process (7). According to them, patients need the relevant information regarding the clinical procedure to exercise their right to decide whether to undergo the treatment in abroad. This ultimately increases the risks for the medical tourists those