Values in medicine

Jürg Kesselring

doi:10.1177/2514183x17714122

Abstract

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.

Highlights

Values are present in the name of the hospital where I am working for 30 years: the name “Valens” is derived from the Latin word “valere”: “value, valuable, important, effective” (Nomen est omen)
Much of what has led to great successes of modern medicine, and to unsatisfactory biases, can be described in a horizontal plane: genetic, molecular, statistical, organizational, and so on
At which values do we want to orient ourselves in medicine of our time? What is important to us? When listening only to political and journalistic statements, one often gets the impression that the Zeitgeist appears characterized by widespread dissatisfaction and discomfort.[2]

Summary

Introduction

Values are present in the name of the hospital where I am working for 30 years: the name “Valens” is derived from the Latin word “valere”: “value, valuable, important, effective” (Nomen est omen).The following personal views are not intending nor pretending to present a list or set of values, applicable for everyone—rather a guide as to how we may produce and acknowledge values and how we may come to esteem and value them, and act according to them.Much of what has led to great successes of modern medicine, and to unsatisfactory biases, can be described in a horizontal plane: genetic, molecular, statistical, organizational, and so on. We may use the brain as a metaphor for the world, where the two halves of the brain are two complementary ways of viewing and interpreting the world and acting upon it.[1] At which values do we want to orient ourselves in medicine of our time?

Results

Conclusion