Dr. Rosamond Rhodes: "Good and not so good medical ethics"
Medical ethics is useful in a variety of tasks. It can and should guide clinical practice, contribute to the education of clinicians, advance thinking in the field, inform biomedical research, and give direction to healthcare policy.
The philosophic tradition with which I identify, calls things ‘good’ for a variety of reasons and calls activities ‘good’ when they achieve some desired purpose.1 For example, in chapter 6 of his masterpiece, Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes provides a perspicacious definition of ‘good.’ In that light, my observations are reflections on what I take to be good in serving the various purposes and functions that medical ethics has come to have. I also offer arguments that may convince readers to accept my perspective. Medical ethics is useful in a variety of tasks. It can and should guide clinical practice, contribute to the education of clinicians, advance thinking in the field, inform biomedical research, and give direction to healthcare policy. Learn more