PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - B Brecher TI - Why the Kantian ideal survives medical learning curves, and why it matters AID - 10.1136/jme.2005.014704 DP - 2006 Sep 01 TA - Journal of Medical Ethics PG - 511--512 VI - 32 IP - 9 4099 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/32/9/511.short 4100 - http://jme.bmj.com/content/32/9/511.full SO - J Med Ethics2006 Sep 01; 32 AB - The “Kantian ideal” is often misunderstood as invoking individual autonomy rather than rational self legislation. Le Morvan and Stock’s otherwise insightful discussion of “Medical learning curves and the Kantian ideal”—for example—draws the mistaken inference that that ideal is inconsistent with the realities of medical practice. But it is not. Rationally to be a patient entails accepting its necessary conditions.