Medical Ethics' Assault Upon Medical Values

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Abstract
THE VIGOROUS resurgence of interest in medical ethics during the past two decades has created a large and controversial literature. Especially problematic is the application of medical ethicists' views in clinical settings. Physicians are decidedly ambivalent about these ethical contributions; on the one hand, they are eagerly searching for assistance in resolving the increasingly complex ethical dilemmas now so common in medical practice. On the other hand, they are wary and disappointed because, until now, the ethicists' contributions have been of dubious value. In this article we will argue that the currently dominant school in medical ethics, that of a patient autonomyrights model based in rationalist philosophy and liberal political theory, has been used to subvert values intrinsic to medicine, that it has done so without adequately establishing the merits of its case, and that the unfortunate result has been the attempted replacement of the historic medical value system by

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