Research Catalog

Title

Hippocratic, religious, and secular medical ethics : the points of conflict / Robert M. Veatch.

Author

Veatch, Robert M.

Publication

Washington, DC : Georgetown University Press, c2012.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xiii, 242 p. : ill; 23 cm.

Summary

"Where should physicians get their ethics? Professional codes such as the Hippocratic Oath claim moral authority for those in a particular field, yet according to medical ethicist Robert Veatch, these codes have little or nothing to do with how members of a guild should understand morality or make ethical decisions. While the Hippocratic Oath continues to be cited by a wide array of professional associations, scholars, and medical students, Veatch contends that the pledge is such an offensive code of ethics that it should be summarily excised from the profession. What, then, should serve as a basis for medical morality? Building on his recent contribution to the prestigious Gifford Lectures, Veatch challenges the presumption that professional groups have the authority to declare codes of ethics for their members. To the contrary, he contends that role-specific duties must be derived from ethical norms having their foundations outside the profession, in religious and secular convictions. Further, these ethical norms must be comprehensible to lay people and patients. Veatch argues that there are some moral norms shared by most human beings that reflect a common morality, and ultimately it is these generally agreed-upon religious and secular ways of knowing -- thus far best exemplified by the 2005 Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights -- that should underpin the morality of all patient-professional relations in the field of medicine." -- Publisher's description.

Uniform Title

Project Muse UPCC books.

Subject

• Hippocrates
• Bioethical Issues
• Religion and Medicine
• Ethics, Medical
• Bioethics
• Medical ethics
• Medical ethics > Catholic Church
• Catholicism
• Hippocratic Oath

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 219-234 ) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Introduction: the Hippocratic problem -- The Hippocratic oath and the ethic of hippocratism -- The Hippocratic tradition: a sporadic retreat -- The cacophony of codes in medical schools and professional associations -- The limits of professionally generated ethics -- Religious medical ethics: revealed and natural alternatives -- Secular ethics and professional ethics -- Fallibilism and the convergence hypothesis.

ISBN

• 9781589019461 (pbk. : alk. paper)
• 1589019466 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

^^2012019192

OCLC

780484107

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library