Dr Hope Landrine, 1954–2019: In memoriam

A note of commemoration of the life and work and Dr Hope Landrine, 1954–2019. Dr Landrine was Associate Editor of the Journal of Health Psychology for two decades and a frequent contributor to the journal. Hope Landrine’s research in the health psychology and public health fields was pioneering and pathfinding. Dr Landrine’s focus on ethnic minorities, specifically those living in segregated and poor neighbourhoods, is a significant corpus of work that provides a challenging perspective on social justice in health care.

Values in medicine

Medical doctors should be studying in the future not only about the “alleviation of physical and mental pain and suffering” but also about the “restoration of social functioning of their patients. Medical professionals are urged to carry their culture of helping and caring as contributions to society. They also assume responsibility for the careful use of available resources and their equitable distribution. Central values of medicine are respect for human dignity, respect for self-determination and autonomy, the primacy of patient welfare, the principle of noninjury, and solidarity. Questions of values deal with particularly complex areas of personal identity, because values are causes and reasons for decisions and actions. The potential damage of medical interventions is not automatically justified by the desire to help. The ratio between benefit and risks of medical measures must always be critically appreciated. The professional medical ethic is the basis for the contract between medicine and society with three basic principles: primacy of patient welfare, respect for the rights of self-determination (autonomy) of patients (informed consent), and promoting social justice in health care (solidarity). From these principles, normative values are derived, indispensably connected with medical responsibilities and obligations. Development of these values is discussed in the light of the philosophical background of the dignity of the individual person and the process of decision-making.