WHY BIOETHICS NEEDS THE PHILOSOPHY OF MEDICINE: SOME IMPLICATIONS OF REFLECTION ON CONCEPTS OF HEALTH AND DISEASE |
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Authors: | Khushf George |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Philosophy and Center for Bioethics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 29208, USA
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Abstract: | Germund Hesslow has argued that concepts of health and disease serve no important scientific, clinical, or ethical function. However, this conclusion depends upon the particular concept of disease he espouses; namely, on Boorse's functional notion. The fact/value split embodied in the functional notion of disease leads to a sharp split between the “science” of medicine and bioethics, making the philosophy of medicine irrelevant for both. By placing this disease concept in the broader context of medical history, I shall show that it does capture an essential part of modern medical ideology. However, it is also a self-contradictory notion. By making explicit the value desiderata of medical nosologies, a reconfiguration of the relation between medicine, bioethics, and the philosophy of medicine is initiated. This, in turn, will involve a recovery of the caring dimensions of medicine, and thus a more humane practice. |
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