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The relationship between medicine's internal morality and religion
1Center for Health Policy and Ethics, Creighton University, 2500 California Plaza, Omaha, NE 68178, USA. jwelie@Creighton.edu
Christian Bioethics
|April 8, 2003
Summary
Physicians seek a traditional medical ethic to protect practice autonomy against market forces. This study argues medicine is inherently ethical (praxis), grounded in health as a moral good, safeguarding it from external economic or religious influences.
Area of Science:
- Philosophy of Medicine
- Medical Ethics
- Aristotelian Philosophy
Background:
- Managed care and market economies challenge medical autonomy and ethical guidelines.
- Physicians and religious critics advocate for a return to traditional medical ethics.
- Calls for a return to traditional ethics aim to define medicine as intrinsically ethical.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine and assess the definition of medicine as an inherently ethical practice.
- To analyze this definition using Aristotle's categories of human undertakings: theory, poieisis, and praxis.
- To determine if understanding medicine as praxis can protect it from market influences.
Main Methods:
- Philosophical analysis of the nature of medical practice.
- Application of Aristotle's concepts of theory, poieisis (production), and praxis.
- Ethical assessment of medicine's internal moral basis.
Main Results:
- Medicine can be classified as praxis, an activity with inherent moral value.
- Unlike morally neutral theory or production, medicine's acts are assessed relative to health.
- Health is identified as a final good, providing medicine with an internal moral compass.
Conclusions:
- Defining medicine as praxis immunizes it against market-based usurpation.
- This internal ethical grounding protects medicine's autonomy.
- However, this perspective also separates medicine from external moralities, including religious ethics.