Humanise medicine, says Pope
Calls for “authentic therapeutic alliance”
The Pope has waded into
the debate over patient autonomy, calling for an "authentic
therapeutic alliance". In an address to surgeons in Rome, he
said that the patient is an "active and responsible collaborator
in the therapeutic treatment," and that his autonomy had to be
respected. The foundation of medicine, he insisted, should always be
"respect for human dignity. In fact, it demands the
unconditional respect of every human being, born or unborn, healthy
or sick, regardless of the condition in which they find themselves."
On the other hand,
he said that "the professional responsibility of the doctor
should bring him to propose treatments that look to the true good of
the patient, aware that his specific competence generally puts him in
a place to better evaluate the situation." This relationship is
so important that one has to "view with suspicion any attempt to
meddle in it from the outside." ~ Zenit,
Oct 20
- How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
- House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
- Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021
More Stories
The FDA finally approved Elon Musk’s Neuralink chip for human trials. Have all the concerns been addressed?
Since its founding in 2016, Elon Musk’s neurotechnology company Neuralink has had the ambitious mission to build a next-generation brain...
You shed DNA everywhere you go – trace samples in the water, sand and air are enough to identify who you are, raising ethical questions about privacy
Human DNA can be sequenced from small amounts of water, sand and air in the environment to potentially extract identifiable...
Are Dutch doctors too willing to euthanise people with autism and intellectual disability?
Will legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide lead to unnecessary deaths because of an able-ist bias against intellectual disability and autism?...
Euthanasia in Quebec: seamless service at a friendly funeral parlour
In Quebec, the number of cases of euthanasia has risen from 63 in 2015-2016 to 3663 in 2021-2022. Nowadays many...
Against commercial-assisted suicide
The journal Bioethics recently published an attack on commercial assisted suicide (CAS). The author, Yoann Della Croce, condemns it as...
Norway to export sperm
Danish sperm banks have grown into a successful export industry. Now Norway seems to be following the same path. The...