Overview

In recent years, virtue theories have enjoyed a renaissance of interest among general and medical ethicists. This book offers a virtue-based ethic for medicine, the health professions, and health care. Beginning with a historical account of the concept of virtue, the authors construct a theory of the place of the virtues in medical practice. Their theory is grounded in the nature and ends of medicine as a special kind of human activity. The concepts of virtue, the virtues, and the virtuous physician are examined along with the place of the virtues of trust, compassion, prudence, justice, courage, temperance, and effacement of self-interest in medicine. The authors discuss the relationship between and among principles, rules, virtues, and the philosophy of medicine. They also address the difference virtue-based ethics makes in confronting such practical problems as care of the poor, research with human subjects, and the conduct of the healing relationship. This book with the author's previous volumes, A Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice and For the Patient's Good, are part of their continuing project of developing a coherent moral philosophy of medicine.

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9780195082890

Table of Contents

Reviews

...the book is impressive and important because it attempts to systematize the insights of virtue theory and medical ethics and to place these insights into the larger framework of moral philosophy. Theoretical Medicine This provocative and articulate study is a significant contribution to the literature. It should certainly be read by every serious physician and ethicist. Richard M. Zaner, Vanderbilt University, Academic Medicine, Volume 69, Number 9, September 1994 Pellegrino and Thomasma are arguably among the most influential authors now writing about the moral nature of physicianhood. Jonathan B. Imber, Wellesley College, New England Journal of Medicine, July 1994 The authors present an excellent introduction to current tides in bioethics ... An interesting, well-reasoned and well-written work with insight. Upper-division undergraduate through professional. J.E. Allen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Choice, Sep '94 a lucid, thoughtful, and impressively organized description of the philosophical foundation of virtue-based ethics ... The Virtues in Medical Practice is a splendid book. It reads well; it is not pedantic; it is intellectually stimulating and morally refreshing; it expands our intellectual horizons; it illuminates our shortcomings and nourishes our capabilities without a trace of condescension or pontification. I urge every physician who has concerns about the moral climate of our troubled ethical scene to read this treatise. He or she will be comforted and educated by such an effort. Bernard H. Adelson, JAMA, October 1994, Vol. 272, No.16 The main message of the book is its call for the resuscitation of virtue and the restoration of the moral force of the medical community. Joanna Pasek, Journal of Medical Ethics 1995, 21 a book to be warmly recommended to all students of medical ethics and anyone else serially interested in the subject Agneta Sutton, Ethics & Medicine 1995 11.2

...the book is impressive and important because it attempts to systematize the insights of virtue theory and medical ethics and to place these insights into the larger framework of moral philosophy.Theoretical Medicine This provocative and articulate study is a significant contribution to the literature. It should certainly be read by every serious physician and ethicist. Richard M. Zaner, Vanderbilt University, Academic Medicine, Volume 69, Number 9, September 1994 Pellegrino and Thomasma are arguably among the most influential authors now writing about the moral nature of physicianhood. Jonathan B. Imber, Wellesley College, New England Journal of Medicine, July 1994 The authors present an excellent introduction to current tides in bioethics ... An interesting, well-reasoned and well-written work with insight. Upper-division undergraduate through professional. J.E. Allen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Choice, Sep '94 a lucid, thoughtful, and impressively organized description of the philosophical foundation of virtue-based ethics ... The Virtues in Medical Practice is a splendid book. It reads well; it is not pedantic; it is intellectually stimulating and morally refreshing; it expands our intellectual horizons; it illuminates our shortcomings and nourishes our capabilities without a trace of condescension or pontification. I urge every physician who has concerns about the moral climate of our troubled ethical scene to read this treatise. He or she will be comforted and educated by such an effort. Bernard H. Adelson, JAMA, October 1994, Vol. 272, No.16 The main message of the book is its call for the resuscitation of virtue and the restoration of the moral force of the medical community. Joanna Pasek, Journal of Medical Ethics 1995, 21 a book to be warmly recommended to all students of medical ethics and anyone else serially interested in the subject Agneta Sutton, Ethics & Medicine 1995 11.2

Author Information

Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., is John Carroll Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics at Georgetown University. David C. Thomasma, Ph.D., is director of the Medical Humanities Program at Loyola University of Chicago.

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