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What kind of a doctor would you select to be your doctor: As an Engineer? As a Priest? As a Colleague? Or as a doctor simply following a mutual contract?
The ethicist, Dr. Robert Veatch in an article” titled “Models for Ethical Medicine in a Revolutionary Age" published in the Hastings Center Report 1972;2:5-7.has set these 4 possible models: engineer, priest, colleague or contractor for society's current and/or future view of the relationship between the doctor and the patient. A review of these four models is nicely written by E.C. Hui MD, PhD (Medical Ethics Unit, Faculty of Medicine,University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong) and can be accessed at the following link: http://www.hkmj.org/article_pdfs/hkm0506p222.pdf
What do you see as the ethically good and the bad with each of these models? If you had only one to select, which would it be? ..Maurice.
What do you see as the ethically good and the bad with each of these models? If you had only one to select, which would it be? ..Maurice.
asked Aug 29, 2010 at 04:50PM in Other
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answered Sep 09, 2010 at 04:11PMDr Bernstein, you always have the best questions!! My answer would be that from the physician's viewpoint, many go into medicine thinking they are contractors and later find out the priest role is most useful. Even in today's high tech medical environment, it is quite clear that the most powerful reason for the extension of lifespan is due to public hygiene (plumbing, toilets, clean water) rather than medical breakthroughs. In acute situations, certainly modern medicine is more useful. However, most of medicine concerns chronic disease and assisting people with leading a healthier, happier lifestyle may do far more good in the long run, both individually and as a public health perspective. -
0Votesanswered Sep 09, 2010 at 05:52PMYour answer, Kelly, is interesting. It would suggest, at least for me, that the relationship of the doctor to patient is not immutable but is a dynamic, changing one depending on the context of that relationship. Since most people are not acutely ill nor acutely injured but are either healthy well or have some chronic ongoing illness they deserve more a priestly physician to advise and encourage a continued healthy life or support them in the management of their chronic illness. The minority who are acutely ill needs that technical engineer physician who can fix the patient and attempt to return them to a stable and more normal life. A purely contracted relationship is in a way limited by the content of the contract. And a collegial relationship may be no better than the relationship of a patient with his or her neighbor communicating and interacting "over the fence". ..Maurice.
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