Book contents
14 - Goals of Medicine
from Part III - Philosophy and Medicine
Summary
The relief of suffering is the fundamental goal of medicine.
– Eric J. CassellAbstract
This chapter addresses some ways of thinking about the goals of medicine. Beginning with a discussion of the two principal ways of specifying medicine’s raison d’être – the social constructionist approach and the essentialist approach – it examines how these two seemingly incompatible approaches might be kept in balance. In particular, it discusses a mid-1990s study by the Hastings Center which found common ground between these two camps by pointing toward four broad notions that can serve as guideposts along the path toward determining modern medicine’s goals and limits. Then, with a focus on enhancing human traits and end-of-life issues in America, it considers how our understanding of the goals of medicine has evolved in recent years.
INTRODUCTION
This chapter addresses the crisis of purpose occasioned by the proliferation of medicine’s goals, beginning in the middle of the twentieth century. Two examples – enhancing human traits and end-of-life care – will illustrate the sorts of challenges faced by efforts to demarcate modern medicine’s legitimate sphere of activity.
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- Medical Humanities , pp. 225 - 236Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014