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Related Experiment Videos

Sick autonomy.

Alfred I Tauber1

  • 1Center for Philosophy and History of Science, Boston University, MA 02215, USA. ait@bu.edu

Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
|November 1, 2003
PubMed
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Patient autonomy and physician beneficence can be harmonized by viewing personal identity relationally, not individualistically. This approach reconfigures trust, integrating patient choices with the ethics of care and responsibility in medicine.

Area of Science:

  • Bioethics
  • Medical Ethics
  • Philosophy of Medicine

Background:

  • Patient autonomy has become central in medical ethics, overshadowing physician beneficence due to declining trust in the doctor-patient relationship.
  • The shift towards a contract model in healthcare jeopardizes the traditional covenant of care.
  • Complex socio-economic factors drive the emphasis on patient autonomy.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To offer a philosophical framework for reconciling patient autonomy and physician beneficence.
  • To demonstrate that autonomy can be understood within a relational context, rather than an individualistic one.
  • To reconfigure trust in bioethics by integrating relational identity with moral considerations.

Main Methods:

  • Philosophical analysis of personal identity construction (atomistic vs. relational).
Keywords:
Analytical ApproachProfessional Patient Relationship

Related Experiment Videos

  • Examination of the ethical implications of different autonomy models.
  • Reconceptualization of trust within a relational framework.

    • Main Results:

    • Viewing persons through a relational lens integrates respect for autonomy with a broader morality of care and responsibility.
    • Reconfiguring trust within this relational understanding allows bioethics to better balance choices and actions with relationship and responsibility.
    • Neither individualistic autonomy nor the ethics of responsibility is sufficient; they are interdependent.

    Conclusions:

    • Integrating atomistic autonomy and the ethics of responsibility is essential for a comprehensive understanding of medical ethics.
    • This reorientation is crucial for restoring the ethos of clinical medicine, centered on the care of others.
    • A relational understanding of personhood supports a balanced approach to patient autonomy and physician beneficence.