RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The duty to do the best for one's patient
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 220
OP 223
DO 10.1136/medethics-2013-101861
VO 41
IS 3
A1 Crisp, Roger
YR 2015
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/41/3/220.abstract
AB This paper is a discussion of the duty of doctors to do what is best for their patients. What is required by this duty is shown to depend on the circumstances, including any financial constraints on the doctor. The duty to do the best is a duty of benevolence, and this virtue itself has to be understood as bounded by other virtues, including justice and professional responsibility. An Aristotelian account of medical benevolence is developed, and the issues of supererogation and individual judgement are discussed within this framework. The paper ends with the claim that the patient-centred conception of benevolence defended in the paper is in line with consequentialist and deontological ethical traditions.