Towards a New Doctor-Patient Relationship: Complementing Medical Principlism With an Ethics of Care

84 pagesIn this project, I aim to integrate the ethics of care into the doctor-patient relationship. Contemporary medical ethics do well to limit harm to patients. However, they are defined mainly in the negative — as rights of the patient that must not be breached — and lack a positive dimension of responsibility towards one’s patient. In many cases, doctors are sacrificing a relationship founded on trust that could open avenues for more empathy and better clinical outcomes. I think the ethics of care can complement the principlist ethics currently dominant in medicine by emphasizing a moral orientation grounded in caring, including values such as attentiveness and receptivity to the other. This mirrors the way that ethics of care scholars such as Held incorporate rights into the private space and responsibilities into the public. Through integrating the ethics of care and associated values, we can build a stronger foundation on which to rest the patient-doctor dyad