Millennial challenges for medicine and modernity

In our polarised modern world, we face enormous challenges that can only be dealt with through a new approach to human co-operation. Globally, the crisis in medicine poses challenges at micro, meso and macro levels which call for profound changes in medical education and in the organisation and accountability of health care services. Our view of medicine must extend beyond the domain of the physician-patient relationship to include wider aspects of medicine and bioethics. This moral perspective demands that the traditional ethical framework, with its focus on the sanctity of life, be expanded to recognise the importance of quality of life and the need for equitable distribution of resources.