Toward a Reconstruction of Medical Morality (original) (raw)
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By Whose Authority? Emerging Issues in Medical Ethics
Theological Studies, 1989
D ISEASE IS an awkward, deeply disturbing mystery of the human condition. Since the day Homo erectus first acquired a limp, we have struggled to understand why. Disease, like death, is inescapable. But from prehistoric times to the present, there have always been healers who have responded to the profound needs of the sick. Questions have sometimes arisen about the propriety of the solutions healers have offered patients for the burdens imposed by disease. Such questions constitute the bulk of the subject matter of medical morality. While it may seem to some that serious investigation of this subject began in the 1950s, medicomoral questions have been asked for many centuries. Jesus, the preeminent healer, was asked by the Pharisees to defend his work of healing
The internal morality of medicine: a constructivist approach
Synthese, 2019
Physicians frequently ask whether they should give patients what they want, usually when there are considerations pointing against doing so, such as medicine's values and physicians' obligations. It has been argued that the source of medicine's values and physicians' obligations lies in what has been dubbed " the internal morality of medicine " : medicine is a practice with an end and norms that are definitive of this practice and that determine what physicians ought to do qua physicians. In this paper, I defend the claim that medicine requires a morality that is internal to its practice, while rejecting the prevalent characterization of this morality and offering an alternative one. My approach to the internal morality of medicine is constructivist in nature: the norms of medicine are constructed by medical professionals, other professionals, and patients, given medicine's end of " benefitting patients in need of prima facie medical treatment and care. " I make the case that patients should be involved in the construction of medicine's morality not only because they have knowledge that is relevant to the internal morality of medicine—namely, their own values and preferences—but also because medicine is an inherently relational enterprise: in medicine the relationship between physician and patient is a constitutive component of the craft itself. The framework I propose provides an authoritative morality for medicine, while allowing for the incorporation, into that very morality, of qualified deference to patient values.
Journal of Medical Ethics, 1999
A number of recent publications by the philosopher David Seedhouse are discussed. Although medicine is an eminently ethical enterprise, the technical and ethical aspects of health care practices can be distinguished, therefore justifying the existence of medical ethics and its teaching as a specific part of every medical curriculum. The goal of teaching medical ethics is to make health care practitioners aware of the essential ethical aspects of their work. Furthermore, the contention that rational bioethics is a fruitless enterprise because it analyses non-rational social events seems neither theoretically tenable nor to be borne out by actual practice. Medical ethics in particular and bioethics in general, constitute afield of expertise that must make itself understandable and convincing to relevant audiences in health care. (7ournal of Medical Ethics 1999;25:340-343)
A new world has probably emerged through the progression of technology which has led to significant debates on social, cultural, legal, and ethical issues, especially in the biomedical field in this century. Application of physician-patient relationship, principles of pluralism, autonomy, democracy, human dignity, and human rights is being challenged within the medicine and health-care system of today. Development of technology-based remedies has fostered greater degrees of medicalization. Hence, the automatic application of such technologies risks distorting the nature of medicine. To be sure, there is a cultural shift that is affecting the society that is increasingly unable to adapt to traditional legal systems. This cultural shift, perhaps, demands new ethics. This entry aims to evaluate the gap between traditional deontological nature of medicine and the emerging new ethics and assess why bioethical reflection is needed.
Tacit components of medical ethics: making decisions in the clinic
Journal of Medical Ethics, 1977
When a patient visits his doctor there is, as well as a By contrast, my contention is simply that the shared spoken dialogue, also an unspoken, or tacit, dialogue Judeo-Christian heritage is pluralistic in its implicabetween them. This may not be evident unless that tions. While this heritage may contain a common dialogue breaks down when the psychological or sense of moral obligation between persons, the moral terms of reference of each are seen to be moral obligations obtaining between medical prodifferent. The author of this paper tries to elucidate fessionals and their patients is less clear and often the framework in which physician and patient think, problematical. The assumption that there exists and in so doing allow an understanding of why the between physicians and patients an anchor of physician may appear to be rigid and authoritarian common reference in which moral reasoning is in his dealing with his patients and the patient grounded is an unwarranted generalization. uncooperative. The conventional approach to medical ethics, exemplified at its best by Ramsey and by Smith, '... I distrust the universals that are not reached by focuses upon the application of rules or principles way of profound respect for the significant features to particular cases. This approach takes it for and outcomes of human experience as found in copyright.
2021
Ethics and the Good Doctor Ethics and the Good Doctor brings together existing literature and an analysis of empirical research conducted by the Jubilee Centre for Character and Virtues to examine the ethical nature of medical practice and explore medicine as a virtuous profession. The book is based on the idea that medical practice is an inherently moral profession, in which notions of trust, care and meaningful relationships form the foundations of being a good doctor. By taking into account the ethical dimensions of medical practice that have come under greater scrutiny and pressure over recent years, this book explores how personal and professional character is understood, enacted, and experienced by medical practitioners at various stages of their career. Ethics and the Good Doctor situates and presents the empirical data in a way that is accessible to practicing doctors, medical students, and medical educators. Clear implications for policy, practice, and research are offered, ensuring this book will be of great interest to a range of stakeholders involved in medical practice, including those working in medical policy.