PHI 2396 Lecture 8: Lecture 8

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHI 2396
• Professor: Dean Lauer

Document Summary

Good medicine tries to do no harm and to heal and benefit from the treatment. The patient must agree and cognitively agree to do so under proper understanding. People with similar needs and similar circumstances should be treated with fairness (the same) Ethics trying to apply to theory to a specific case and make judgement calls: not black and white. One of the strongest default principles of ethics. Autonomy not infringing upon someones rights and decisions. May think autonomy may be too strong/dominant: respect for individuals because they are human beings, overly dominant ethical feature, bioethicists have had some problems. Maybe not: act as agents fo the patient when they cant make choices and autonomy has disappeared, some medical professionals feel betrayed by the legal strength of the autonomy principle. If autonomy is not followed, it is a case for tort law leading to malpractice cases or even assault and battery.