-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Rosamond Rhodes, Two Concepts of Medical Ethics and Their Implications for Medical Ethics Education, The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy: A Forum for Bioethics and Philosophy of Medicine, Volume 27, Issue 4, 2002, Pages 493–508, https://doi.org/10.1076/jmep.27.4.493.8608
- Share Icon Share
Abstract
People who discuss medical ethics or bioethics come to very different conclusions about the levels of agreement in the field and the implications of consensus among health care professionals. In this paper I argue that these disagreements turn on a confusion of two distinct senses of medical ethics. I differentiate (1) medical ethics as a subject in applied ethics from (2) medical ethics as the professional moral commitments of health care professions. I then use the distinction to explain its significant implications for medical ethics education. Drawing on the recent work of John Rawls, I also show the centrality of philosophy in medical ethics by illustrating how contemporary philosophy can be used to construct an ethical framework for the medical professions.