PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - W Ruddick
AU  - W Finn
TI  - Objections to hospital philosophers.
AID  - 10.1136/jme.11.1.42
DP  - 1985 Mar 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 42--46
VI  - 11
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/11/1/42.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/11/1/42.full
SO  - J Med Ethics1985 Mar 01; 11
AB  - Like morally sensitive hospital staff, philosophers resist routine simplification of morally complex cases. Like hospital clergy, they favour reflective and principled decision-making. Like hospital lawyers, they refine and extend the language we use to formulate and defend our complex decisions. But hospital philosophers are not redundant: they have a wider range of principles and categories and a sharper eye for self-serving presuppositions and implicit contradictions within our practices. As semi-outsiders, they are often best able to take an &#039;external point of view,&#039; unburdened by routine, details, and departmental loyalties. Their clarifications can temporarily disrupt routine, but can eventually improve staff morale, hence team practice and patient welfare.