Professing ethically. On the place of ethics in defining medicine
L. R. Kass
Medicine, despite technological advances and societal changes, remains
essentially what it has always been, a profession rather than a trade, with
its own ends, means, and intrinsic norms of conduct. Being a professional
is an ethical matter, entailing devotion to a way of life, in the service
of others and of some higher good. The medical profession is devoted to the
naturally given end of health and assists the immanent powers of
self-healing. It serves the needs as it treats the infirmities of the sick,
sensitive to their vulnerability, shame, and exposure and mindful of the
meaning of the delicate tension between bodily wholeness and necessary
decay. These special characteristics imply specific and inherently medical
obligations, both of omission and commission, as well as an appropriately
reverential stance of the physician before his chosen profession.
