Responsibility in Health Care

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiii

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2. Health Care Teams and the Physician-Patient Relationship

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. An Historical View of Health Care Teams

      • Theodore M. Brown

      Pages 3-21

   3. Once on Top, Now on Tap: American Physicians View their Relationships with Patients, 1920–1970

      • Guenter B. Risse

      Pages 23-49

3. Authority and Responsibility in the Practice of Medicine

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 51-51

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   2. The Concept of Responsibility in Medicine

      • George J. Agich

      Pages 53-73

   3. Comments on “The Concept of Responsibility in Medicine”

      • Arthur F. Kohrman

      Pages 75-81

   4. Authority and the Profession of Medicine

      • Stanley M. Hauerwas

      Pages 83-104

   5. Power, Authority, and Rights in the Practice of Medicine

      • Richard E. Flathman

      Pages 105-125

   6. Medical Authority and Professional Medical Authority: The Nature of Authority in Medicine for Decisions by Lay Persons and Professionals

      • Robert M. Veatch

      Pages 127-137

4. Ethics of Consultation and Interprofessional Relationships

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 139-139

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   2. Medical Consultations in the Context of the Physician-Patient Relationship

      • Mark Siegler

      Pages 141-162

   3. Integrity in Interprofessional Relationships

      • Christine Mitchell

      Pages 163-184

   4. Consulting With Integrity: Some Reflections on Team Health Care and Professional Responsibility

      • William B. Bondeson

      Pages 185-192

   5. Logical Confusions and Moral Dilemmas in Health Care Teams and Team Talk

      • Edmund L. Erde

      Pages 193-213

   6. Responsibility and Health Care Teams: A Health Professional’s Perspective

      • Ruth B. Purtilo

      Pages 215-223

5. Legal and Political Responsibility in Health Care Matters

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 225-225

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   2. Legal Responsibility in Health Care: Whose Fault is it Anyway?

      • Peter C. Williams

      Pages 227-243

   3. Reaching Closure on Health-Related Controversies

      • Robert F. Rich

      Pages 245-259

   4. Responsibility and Public Policy in Health Care: Commentary on Essays by Williams and Rich

      • Bruce L. Miller

      Pages 261-275

Medicine is a complex social institution which includes biomedical research, clinical practice, and the administration and organization of health care delivery. As such, it is amenable to analysis from a number of disciplines and directions. The present volume is composed of revised papers on the theme of "Responsibility in Health Care" presented at the Eleventh Trans­ Disciplinary Symposium on Philosophy and Medicine, which was held in Springfield, illinois on March 16-18, 1981. The collective focus of these essays is the clinical practice of medicine and the themes and issues related to questions of responsibility in that setting. Responsibility has three related dimensions which make it a suitable theme for an inquiry into clinical medicine: (a) an external dimension in legal and political analysis in which the State imposes penalties on individuals and groups and in which officials and governments are held accountable for policies; (b) an internal dimension in moral and ethical analysis in which individuals take into account the consequences of their actions and the criteria which bear upon their choices; and (c) a comprehensive dimension in social and cultural analysis in which values are ordered in the structure of a civilization ([8], p. 5). The title "Responsibility in Health Care" thus signifies a broad inquiry not only into the ethics of individual character and actions, but the moral foundations of the cultural, legal, political, and social context of health care generally.

• care
• concept
• ethics
• health
• medicine
• morality
• nature
• policy

• Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield, USA

  George J. Agich

Policies and ethics