Ethics, trust, and the professions : philosophical and cultural aspects / edited by Edmund D. Pellegrino, Robert M. Veatch, and John P. Langan with the editorial assistance of Virginia Ashby Sharpe.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Pellegrino, Edmund D., 1920-2013.

Veatch, Robert M.

Langan, John, 1940-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Professional ethics--Congresses.

Professional ethics.

Trust--Congresses.

Trust.

Confidential communications--Congresses.

Confidential communications.

Genre:

Conference papers and proceedings.

Physical Description:

xiii, 284 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Washington, D.C. : Georgetown University Press, 1991.

Summary:

As our society becomes more technologically sophisticated we all become at the same time more vulnerable because more dependent on experts. The question then arises, Whom can we trust and how far? Nowhere is this question more pressing than in the traditional professions: medicine, law, ministry. For centuries this trinity projected a rock-like stability in their adherence to self-enforcing codes of ethics. But the pervasive relativism of our culture has called even their assurances in doubt.

The essays in this volume, which resulted from an international conference on professional ethics during Georgetown University's Bicentennial celebration, probe the nature of the fiduciary relationship that binds client to lawyer, believer to minister, and patient to doctor. The angles of approach include history, sociology, philosophy, and culture, and their very multiplicity reveals how difficult we find it to formulate a code of ethics in each of these professions which will insure a relationship of trust between the professional and the public he or she serves.

To broaden the question still further, three of the essays provide crosscultural perspectives on the question of the fiduciary relationship by bringing to bear on it Japanese, Chinese, and European perspectives.

Contents:

I. The Concept of the Fiduciary Relation

The Politics of Trust in American Health Care / Daniel M. Fox 3

The Fiduciary Relationship and the Nature of Professions / Robert Sokolowski 23

The Phenomenon of Trust and the Patient-Physician Relationship / Richard M. Zaner 45

Trust and Distrust in Professional Ethics / Edmund D. Pellegrino 69

II. What Does Trust Require?

The Physician's Knowledge and the Patient's Best Interest / Allen Buchanan 93

Facts and Values in the Physician-Patient Relationship / Dan W. Brock 113

Are There Virtues Inherent in a Profession? / Gilbert Meilaender 139

Is Trust of Professionals a Coherent Concept? / Robert M. Veatch 159

III. The Sociocultural Setting of the Professions

Professions, Professors, and Competing Obligations / Samuel Gorovitz 177

Nourishing Professionalism / Eliot Freidson 193

Professional Paradigms / John Langan 221

IV. Fiduciary Relationship: Several World Views

Fiduciary Relationships and the Medical Profession: A Japanese Point of View / Rihito Kimura 235

The Fiduciary Relationship between Professionals and Clients: A Chinese Perspective / Ren-zong Qiu 247

Professional Organizations and Professional Ethics: A European View / Hans-Martin Sass 263.

Notes:

Contributions to the Georgetown University bicentennial conference.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

0878405127

0878405135

OCLC:

22310218