scholarly journals “扁鵲見蔡桓公”——對一則古代案例的倫理學回顧

Author(s):  
Jianguang WANG

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.扁鵲是中國先秦時期著名的醫生,同時也是中國傳統醫學和醫學倫理的奠基者和實踐者之一。他在與蔡桓公的幾次會面中作出的對話,有著豐富的道德內涵,展示了傳統醫患之間的一種具有特色的醫學倫理。中國傳統的醫學倫理和職業精神並不把醫生僅僅看成是一個純粹的技術性職業,而是賦與其中豐富的人生道德內涵和家國天下的思想,所以在西方醫患關係中被認為是十分重要的知情同意問題,在中國傳統的醫患關係中雖然也存在,但並沒有成為中國傳統醫患關係的主體。與之相反,中國傳統的醫患關係因為是建立在“上醫醫國”的文化土壤中的,醫患之間的關係也是在綱常倫理的維度中加以調適的,所以這種關係不僅僅是今天意義上的權利和義務、知情和同意等法律屬性的關係。Bian Que is the earliest known Chinese physician of the Pre-Qin era (ca. 700 B.C.E), whose name is often associated with physicians of the highest medical caliber. One legend tells of how when Bian Que was in the feudal state of Cai, he visited the Lord Huan and told him that he had a serious disease. The Lord Huan thought Bian Que was trying to profit from the fears of his patients and declined the offer for treatment. Eventually, Lord Huan’s condition got worse. The last time Bian Que went to see Lord Huan, he knew that the lord would soon die and escaped from the state. This essay considers the ethical implications of the legend, such as the moral duty of the physician and the nature of the physician-patient relationship. Did Bian Que violate informed consent when he failed to tell the lord he would die of the disease if not treated immediately? The author concludes that the role of physician in ancient China was quite different from what one sees today. Thus, modern ideas and concepts such as informed consent and the language of rights cannot be applied to the case of Bian Que.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 182 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

1987 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fran Carnerie

AbstractMany individuals develop a temporary state of cognitive and emotional impairment after being diagnosed with catastrophic illness. Thus, when crucial decisions about medical treatment are required, they are unable to assimilate information; or worse, the legal need to be informed can rival a psychological desire to not be informed. The Canadian informed consent doctrine is unresponsive to crisis and clinically impracticable, and so paradoxically compromises the integrity and autonomy it was designed to protect. Many aspects of the physician-patient relationship and clinical setting also undermine the philosophical values enshrined in this doctrine. This further jeopardizes the individual's integrity. The Article explores proposals for change such as delaying the informing and consenting, improving the concept of consent, and improving the role of the physician.


Author(s):  
Chih-Hsuan Huang ◽  
Hsin-Hung Wu ◽  
Yii-Ching Lee ◽  
Li Li

The environment in health care organizations is becoming increasingly competitive. Therefore, to improve patient return rates, health care organizations need to examine how to enhance the physician-patient relationship. In particular, the role of patient gratitude on the physician-patient relationship in health care organizations is still ambiguous. The specific role of patient gratitude in the medical service industry needs to be identified. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate physician-patient interactions with reference to relationship marketing and to further understand the relationships among relationship quality, patient gratitude, and patient loyalty. The potential effects of patient gratitude on the physician-patient relationship were examined by testing mediation effect. The results demonstrated that patient gratitude had a notable effect on the association between relationship quality and patient loyalty. To improve the physician-patient relationship in the medical service industry, health care managements should not ignore the 3 relationship quality tactics perceived by patients, specially the role of the potential effect of patient gratitude on relational building.


2012 ◽  
Vol 19 (5) ◽  
pp. 252-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bhautesh Dinesh Jani ◽  
David N. Blane ◽  
Stewart W. Mercer

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-41
Author(s):  
Hossein Khoshrang ◽  
◽  
Morteza Rahbar Taramsari ◽  
Cyrus Emir Alavi3 ◽  
Robabeh Soleimani ◽  
...  

Background: In patients undergoing Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), obtaining written Informed Consent (IC) must be the standard measure before the procedure. The patient must be informed about the risks and benefits of the treatment and alternatives. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the quality of IC obtaining before the ECT course in an academic hospital in the North of Iran. Materials & Methods: This study was conducted at an academic center in the north of Iran during 2018-2019. Firstly the patients’ mental capacity was assessed, and if it was not adequate for giving informed consent, a patient’s relative was interviewed. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS V. 22. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to evaluate the normality assumption. To compare the mean scores in subgroups, we applied t-test. Results: A total of 259 people enrolled in the survey and were interviewed. Schizophrenia was the main cause of receiving ECT. The Mean±SD score of receiving information was 8.22±3.68 (0-16), understandability of IC 3.03±1.76 (0-6), patients’ voluntary acceptance of the treatment 1.38±0.68 (0-4) and physician-patient relationship 6.11±2.16 (0-12). The total Mean±SD score was 18.05±3.16 (0-38). Conclusion: IC process was not optimal in our center; however, great trust in the physicians was noticeable. The physician-patient relationship had the highest score while the intentional obtaining of informed consent achieved the lowest.


2007 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
JEFFREY P. TUTTLE

Objective: When physicians confront a personal illness of a serious nature, they may discover that the transition to the sick role is challenging, and the inability to relinquish their stethoscope may cause undo anxiety. The physician–patient relationship is intrinsically asymmetrical, and the role of the physician is to regulate the amount of information patients need in order to become educated about their illness and to make informed decisions about their treatment plan. This article explores the challenges in the physician–patient relationship when the patient is also a physician.Methods: This article is a literature review of publications involving the unique challenges physician–patients experience when suffering from serious personal illness.Results: The medical knowledge physician–patients harbor has the potential to complicate their ability to cope with difficult or terminal diagnoses. Paradoxically, knowledge about a condition may fuel anxiety instead of alleviating the fear associated with the unknown. Medical knowledge therefore may entail a certain loss of innocence, and physicians are often unable to revert to being “mere” patients. Furthermore, managing this anxiety in physician–patients may prove to be challenging to the treating physician.Significance of results: From a medical perspective, physician–patients need to be addressed like any other patient. Psychologically, however, these patients are unique, and the specific challenges their education and experience bring into the consultation room needs to be explicitly addressed.


Author(s):  
Jue WANG

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.本文首先廓清了“醫乃仁術”在傳統儒家思想脈絡裏的含義,並指出從來源上說,它迥異於西方生命倫理學主流,而採取了一種獨特的“不離人倫,親親為本”的視角。然而這種視角使得“醫乃仁術”總是被一種歧義所困擾:它既是一種行善原則,也是一種未顧及自主性原則的行善原則,家長主義的陰影無處不在。“醫乃仁術”的歧義成為中國生命倫理學建設的最大瓶頸。面對這種困境,本文試圖在現代西方生命倫理學話語實踐之外,另闢蹊徑,借助關懷倫理學和美德倫理學的最近研究成果,闡發“醫乃仁術”的合理內涵。This essay addresses the ethical implications of the physician-patient relationship from the Confucian perspective, which holds that the physician must regard the patient as a family member to treat the patient properly. It is well known that there are two primary approaches to moral authority in contemporary Western medical ethics. One is internal, and assumes that the good inherent to medicine is the source of moral authority in medical activities. The other is external, and denies that the ends and ethics of medicine can be determined by typical medical activities. It holds that medical ethics should be based on general moral principles, such as autonomy and justice. However, the Confucian model seems to be at odds with both of these approaches. On the one hand, Confucians do not think that medicine constitutes a self-contained domain of activity with its own ethics; rather, medicine is seen as a continuum of familial relationships and ethics. On the other hand, Confucians also hold that the physician-patient relationship should follow the example of the flexible relationships among family members rather than the rigid general principles of autonomy and justice.The Western model is aimed at action, whereas the Confucian view focuses on personal affective relations. The greatest problem with the Confucian model is its notorious paternalism; that is, it appears to fail to pay sufficient attention to the potential conflict between patient and physician about the good, ignoring the issue of patient autonomy. In the modern Western tradition, the model of the physician-patient relationship is based on two self-sufficient agents (patient and physician) who are united in pursuing a certain good, where each is the final source of what is good for him- or herself. However, the real physician-patient encounter demands a deeper commitment between the two than this model suggests. When entering a physician-patient relationship, what the patient seeks is care from the physician, not autonomy. That is to say, the patient first of all trusts the physician. To earn that trust, it is not enough that the physician treat the patient based only on the principle of autonomy or what the patient requires. Rather, a deep attachment – analogous to a familial relationship – must be developed that can serve as the basis of the encounter between the patient and physician. The Confucian physician-patient model, which is rooted in such a relationship, does not contrast but rather complements its Western counterpart.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 564 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.


1987 ◽  
Vol 6 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 231-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan R. Johnson ◽  
Susan M. Guenther

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Shadi Sabetghadam ◽  

Introduction: Nowadays, about 50-65% of births in Iran occur by Cesarean Section (CS). Informed consent (IC) is one of the most important ethical, legal and professional requirements of a surgical procedure. Objectives: This study aims to assess the quality of obtaining surgical IC from women underwent CS in public hospitals of Iran. Materials and Methods: In this analytical study with cross-sectional design, 300 postpartum women who had CS referred to two public hospitals in Rasht, Iran were participated through stratified random sampling method in 2016. Data were collected using a two-part researcher-made questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U test, and Spearman’s correlation test. Results: The mean age of participants was 29.84 ± 5.9 years. The majority of them (45.3%) had education lower than high school. The overall mean score for the quality of obtained IC was 62.23±23.38, out of 150 points. Regarding its dimensions, quality of acquiring IC form (20.21±7.12, out of 40 points), provision of CS-related information (15.67±11.10, out of 45 points), voluntariness (7.53±6.95, out of 25), and the physician–patient relationship (18.81±8.87, out of 40 points) were perceived poor. Women’s educational level had a significant correlation with the IC quality dimensions of voluntariness (P=0.0001) and physician–patient relationship (P=0.043). The number of deliveries (P=0.008), live births (P=0.031), and stillbirth (P=0.0001) had a significant correlation with acquiring the IC form. The voluntariness was significantly associated with the number of live births (P=0.023) and stillbirth (P=0.001). The physician-patient relationship dimension was significantly associated with the number of pregnancies (P=0.023) and abortions (P=0.0001). The overall quality of obtained IC was significantly correlated with the women’ age (r= 0.162, P= 0.005). Conclusion: Most of women in Iran are not informed enough about the CS and its consequences. Health care providers should pay more attention to the women’s characteristics when obtaining IC for the CS. We recommend essential changes in the process of obtaining surgical IC for the CS in public hospitals of Iran. Obtaining IC during pregnancy may reduce unnecessary CSs.


Author(s):  
Guobin CHENG

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.本文簡要梳理了從帝制時代到上世紀80 年代之前中國病人自主狀況和相關社會理念的演變過程,並對其出現的特定歷史條件進行了初步分析。中國傳統的病人自主權是整合在社會禮法秩序中的病人家長制。雖然從中國近代到新中國成立初期,病人自主狀況和自主權的概念都發生了一定的變化,但因為它們幾乎都屈從於這兩個階段的社會政治運動,所以無法實現基礎倫理結構和價值觀的轉變。目前中國從西方引入的現代個人主義式的病人自主權概念,不僅與傳統的理解存在巨大差異,也與當前的醫學生活與社會制度不完全匹配。在中國解決病人權利保護的難題,不是任何一種單一化的理念引進、制度改造或者政治運動就可以實現的,我們必須把自己的思考投入到那個歷史與當下、理論與現實、中國與西方糾纏在一起的真實的世界,才有可能發現問題的癥結並找到正確的方向。This essay offers a historical outline of the evolution of patient autonomy and related social and medical concepts in China from the imperial era to the 1980s. The author contends that the idea of patient autonomy was totally absent from traditional Chinese culture, as every area of society, from family to medicine, was structured according to a distinctively paternalistic model and regulated by ritual guidelines (lifa). Although the Western medical practices that arrived in China in the 1840s somewhat altered the Chinese approach to medicine, and the physician-patient relationship was viewed in a more egalitarian manner after the establishment of “new China” in 1949, the effects of these changes were minimal due to the political ideology of the time. The author argues that taking a historical perspective on the issues of patient autonomy and the rights of patients in China will aid understanding of the current challenges facing medicine in China and suggest ways of resolving ethical dilemmas and ambiguities at both a theoretical and a practical level.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 122 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.


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