RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Taking a moral holiday? Physicians’ practical identities at the margins of professional ethics
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 626
OP 633
DO 10.1136/jme-2022-108500
VO 50
IS 9
A1 van Gils-Schmidt, Henk Jasper
A1 Salloch, Sabine
YR 2024
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/50/9/626.abstract
AB Physicians frequently encounter situations in which their professional practice is intermingled with moral affordances stemming from other domains of the physician’s lifeworld, such as family and friends, or from general morality pertaining to all humans. This article offers a typology of moral conflicts ‘at the margins of professionalism’ as well as a new theoretical framework for dealing with them. We start out by arguing that established theories of professional ethics do not offer sufficient guidance in situations where professional ethics overlaps with moral duties of other origins. Therefore, we introduce the moral theory developed by Christine M. Korsgaard, that centres around the concept of practical identity. We show how Korsgaard’s account offers a framework for interpreting different types of moral conflicts ‘at the margins of professionalism’ to provide either orientation for solving the conflict or an explanation for the emotional and moral burden involved in moral dilemmas.No data are available.