The Christian Virtues In Medical Practice / Edition 1

by Edmund D. Pellegrino, David C. Thomasma

Overview

Christian health care professionals in our secular and pluralistic society often face uncertainty about the place religious faith holds in today's medical practice. Through an examination of a virtue-based ethics, this book proposes a theological view of medical ethics that helps the Christian physician reconcile faith, reason, and professional duty.

Edmund D. Pellegrino and David C. Thomasma trace the history of virtue in moral thought, and they examine current debate about a virtue ethic's place in contemporary bioethics. Their proposal balances theological ethics, based on the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with contemporary medical ethics, based on the principles of beneficence, justice, and autonomy. The result is a theory of clinical ethics that centers on the virtue of charity and is manifest in practical moral decisions.

Using Christian bioethical principles, the authors address today's divisive issues in medicine. For health care providers and all those involved in the fields of ethics and religion, this volume shows how faith and reason can combine to create the best possible healing relationship between health care professional and patient.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780878405664
Publisher:	Georgetown University Press
Publication date:	04/01/1996
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	180
Sales rank:	325,216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 9.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Pellegrino, Edmund D., MD (Georgetown Univ); Thomasma, David C., PhD (Loyola Univ Stritch School of Medicine)

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: James F. Bresnahan, SJ, JD, LLM, PhD (Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)
Description: This monograph follows upon a series of books by these two authors, all published by a different publisher (Oxford).
Purpose: It takes up the central themes of the authors' 1993 The Virtues in Medical Practice, but focuses on what they call a Christian understanding of virtues in medical practice. But, in fact, they present one very specific style of Roman Catholic understanding of the virtues. The book thus reflects one of several ways of interpreting St. Thomas Aquinas' teaching on the virtues, one of several Thomist interpretations. It reveals, especially, a strong interest of the authors in the recent pronouncements of Pope John Paul II on Roman Catholic moral theology. The book thus contrasts sharply with the more strictly philosophical (not expressly religious and theological) approach of The Virtues in Medical Practice, as well as of the authors' earlier For the Patient's Good (1988) and A Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice (1981).
Audience: However, it will be of considerable interest to those involved in medical ethics who have been stimulated by the previous work of these two authors.
Features: Some personal convictions and perspectives of the authors are clearly stated here. The authors do not, however, engage in controversy with other, contemporary Roman Catholic moral theologians whose approaches to, and interpretations of, the Roman Catholic moral theological traditions in medical ethics are in conflict with theirs.
Assessment: The book fails to reflect fully the present state of Catholic medical-moral theology as a whole. This will be found a weakness by some, a strength by others.

Doody's Review Service

2 Stars from Doody

This monograph follows upon a series of books by these two authors, all published by a different publisher (Oxford). It takes up the central themes of the authors' 1993 The Virtues in Medical Practice, but focuses on what they call a Christian understanding of virtues in medical practice. But, in fact, they presents one very specific style of Roman Catholic understanding of the virtues. The book thus reflects one of several ways of interpreting St. Thomas Aquinas' teaching on the virtues, one of several Thomist interpretations. It reveals, especially, a strong interest of the authors in the recent pronouncements of Pope John Paul II on Roman Catholic moral theology. The book thus contrasts sharply with the more strictly philosophical (not expressly religious and theological) approach of The Virtues in Medical Practice, as well as of the authors' earlier For the Patient's Good (1988) and A Philosophical Basis of Medical Practice (1981). However, it will be of considerable interest to those involved in medical ethics who have been stimulated by the previous work of these two authors. Some personal convictions and perspectives of the authors are clearly stated here. The authors do not, however, engage in controversy with other, contemporary Roman Catholic moral theologians whose approaches to, and interpretations of, the Roman Catholic moral theological traditions in medical ethics are in conflict with theirs. The book fails to reflect fully the present state of Catholic medical-moral theology as a whole. This will be found a weakness by some, a strength by others.

James F. Bresnahan