Beschreibung
At all times physicians were bound to pursue not only medical tasks, but to reflect also on the many anthropological and metaphysical aspects of their discipline, such as on the nature of life and death, of health and sickness, and above all on the vital ethical dimensions of their practice. For centuries, almost for two millennia, how ever, those who practiced medicine lived in a relatively clearly defined ethical and implicitly philosophical or religious 'world-order' within which they could safely turn to medical practice, knowing right from wrong, or at least being told what to do and what not to do. Today, however, the situation has radically changed, mainly due to three quite different reasons: First and most obviously, physicians today are faced with a tremendous development of new possibilities and techniques which allow previously unheard of medical interventions (such as cloning, cryo-conservation, ge netic interference, etc. ) which call out for ethical reflection and wise judgment but regarding which there is no legal and medical ethical tradition. Traditional medical education did not prepare physicians for coping with this new brave world of mod em medicine. Secondly, there are the deep philosophical crises and the philosophical diseases of medicine mentioned in the preface that lead to a break-down of firm and formative legal and ethical norms for medical actions.
Autorenportrait
Inhaltsangabe1 The Nature and the Seven Goals of Medicine as Objects of a Dramatic Free Choice of the Physician Today.- 1. On the Nature of Medicine and the Physician. The Physician as Scientifically Trained Healer, as Practitioner of the 'Art of Medicine', as Ethicist, and as Moral Subject.- 1.1. The Physician as Scientifically Trained Healer, the Essence of Medicine as Empirical Inductive Science, and Its a priori Foundations.- 1.1.1. The Physician and the Role of Empirical Scientific Training.- 1.1.2. A Justification of Medicine as an Empirical Science against Hume's and Popper's Objections Raised against Induction.- 1.1.3. Immense Progress in Medicine as Experimental Science and as Scientifically Supported Medical Practice.- 1.1.4. Medicine as Practical or 'Pragmatic' Science and the Respective Values of Theoretical versus Practical Sciences.- 1.2. The Physician as 'Practical Artist' and Craftsman-and Progress in Medicine.- 1.3. On the Constitutive Role of a Philosophical Understanding of Man and Morality for Medicine as Science, and of Moral Commitments for the Physician as Practitioner.- 2. The Physician-Philosopher: Theoretical and Practical Philosophical and Ethical Aspects of Medicine.- 2.1. The Goods Medicine Is Called to Serve and the Indispensable Moral Choice of the Physician.- 2.2. The Seven Goods or' seven Ends' the Physician Should Serve and Respect.- 2.2.1. Medical Service to Human Life in Its Uniqueness and Specifically Personal Nature as well as in Its Right Place in the Whole Order of Goods.- 2.3. 'Health' as a Fundamental Goal of Medicine and as Disputed Question.- 2.3.1. The Question "What Is Human Health?" as a Philosophical and as Disputed Question.- The Nature of Health and Reductionism.- Utopian Notions of Health.- Objectivity or Subjectivity of Concepts of Health?.- 2.3.2. The Question "To Which Extent Should Health Be Promoted in Medicine?" as a Disputed Question.- 2.3.3. The Question "What Is the Place of Health in the Hierarchy of Human Goods?" as a Disputed Question.- 2.4. The Fight against Pain (Suffering) and for Pleasure and Physical and Mental Relief: Preventing, Alleviating, or Freeing from Suffering (Palliative Medicine)-Promoting Well-Being and Feeling Well.- 2.5. The Conscious Life of Man as Such and Personal Dignity.- 2.6. Integrity of the Human Bodily Form and Aesthetic Values.- 2.7. The General and Spiritual Good of Man and of His Vocation as Transcendent Goal and Guideline for Medicine.- 2.7.1. General Remarks on the Ways in Which This Transcendent Good of the Human Person Obliges the Physician.- 2.7.2. The Different Ways in Which This Transcendent Good of the Human Person Obliges the Physician.- 2.8. The Special Relationship between the Physician and the Absolute Good (God).- 2.9. The Religious Transformation of the Image of the Physician and the Goods Medicine Should Serve.- 2.10. The Remarkable World Wide Consensus on the Goods Medicine Should Serve.- 2.11. The Physician-Philosopher and the Nature of the 'Practical' Philosophy in Medicine with Respect to the Seven Goods.- 2.12. Conclusion of Our Reflections on the Goods Medicine Should Serve, and Theophrastus Paracelsus on the Transcendent Ends of Medicine.- 3. The Physician as Moral Agent and Further Hints at the Philosophical Diseases of Medicine and Their Cure.- 3.1. Importance of the Subject of Medicine and His Inalienable Rights as Person: Physicians, Nurses, and Other Health Professionals Are Not Mere Technicians or Instruments in the Service of Health and of the Other Goods of Medicine or of Patient Wishes but Acting Persons.- 3.2. Finding Anew Its Roots? A Word on the History and the Essential Ethical Dimension of Medicine-the Hippocratic Oath as More than an Ornament of the Medical Profession.- 3.3. Progress or Decline of Medicine with Respect to Its Value-Base and Third Philosophical-Ethical Dimension: Modern Medicine-Immense Progress or Regress behind the Age of the Medicine Man?.- 2 The Dignity of the Human Person as a 'Universal of
