PHL281H1 Study Guide - Final Guide: James Childress, Mark Siegler, Plastic Surgery
Document Summary
Physician as father figure: doctor as wise and caring father-figure. Looks after the whole person: moral authority. Value of health in relation to other values?: paternalism focuses on care over respect, needs over rights, medical discretion over autonomy, gendered. Medicine is not a morally neutral technique: people are all vulnerable to life threatening conditions requiring professional medical care: medicine has an internal morality including fidelity to therapeutic relationship with patients needing care. Faulty premise of medical paternalism: health and prolonged life are assumed to be top priorities. To justify paternalism, person must be acting irrationally or inconsistently with own long range preferences- assuming health/prolonged life are top values. Quality and significance of life takes precedence over longevity for many. Most people treat health as means to achieving other (more valuable) ends. Doctors cannot assume value ordering for patients: patients are likely ones with best knowledge of this. Patients have right of self determination/freedom to make own choices.
