The Way of Medicine - (Notre Dame Studies in Medical Ethics and Bioethics) by Farr Curlin & Christopher Tollefsen (Paperback)

About the Book

Today's medicine is spiritually deflated and morally adrift; this book explains why and offers an ethical framework to renew and guide practitioners in fulfilling their profession to heal. What is medicine and what is it for? What does it mean to be a good doctor? Answers to these questions are essential both to the practice of medicine and to understanding the moral norms that shape that practice. The Way of Medicine articulates and defends an account of medicine and medical ethics meant to challenge the reigning provider of services model, in which clinicians eschew any claim to know what is good for a patient and instead offer an array of "health care services" for the sake of the patient's subjective well-being. Against this trend, Farr Curlin and Christopher Tollefsen call for practitioners to recover what they call the Way of Medicine, which offers physicians both a path out of the provider of services model and also the moral resources necessary to resist the various political, institutional, and cultural forces that constantly push practitioners and patients into thinking of their relationship in terms of economic exchange. Curlin and Tollefsen offer an accessible account of the ancient ethical tradition from which contemporary medicine and bioethics has departed. Their investigation, drawing on the scholarship of Leon Kass, Alasdair MacIntyre, and John Finnis, leads them to explore the nature of medicine as a practice, health as the end of medicine, the doctor-patient relationship, the rule of double effect in medical practice, and a number of clinical ethical issues from the beginning of life to its end. In the final chapter, the authors take up debates about conscience in medicine, arguing that rather than pretending to not know what is good for patients, physicians should contend conscientiously for the patient's health and, in so doing, contend conscientiously for good medicine. The Way of Medicine is an intellectually serious yet accessible exploration of medical practice written for medical students, health care professionals, and students and scholars of bioethics and medical ethics.

Book Synopsis

Today's medicine is spiritually deflated and morally adrift; this book explains why and offers an ethical framework to renew and guide practitioners in fulfilling their profession to heal.

What is medicine and what is it for? What does it mean to be a good doctor? Answers to these questions are essential both to the practice of medicine and to understanding the moral norms that shape that practice. The Way of Medicine articulates and defends an account of medicine and medical ethics meant to challenge the reigning provider of services model, in which clinicians eschew any claim to know what is good for a patient and instead offer an array of "health care services" for the sake of the patient's subjective well-being. Against this trend, Farr Curlin and Christopher Tollefsen call for practitioners to recover what they call the Way of Medicine, which offers physicians both a path out of the provider of services model and also the moral resources necessary to resist the various political, institutional, and cultural forces that constantly push practitioners and patients into thinking of their relationship in terms of economic exchange.

Curlin and Tollefsen offer an accessible account of the ancient ethical tradition from which contemporary medicine and bioethics has departed. Their investigation, drawing on the scholarship of Leon Kass, Alasdair MacIntyre, and John Finnis, leads them to explore the nature of medicine as a practice, health as the end of medicine, the doctor-patient relationship, the rule of double effect in medical practice, and a number of clinical ethical issues from the beginning of life to its end. In the final chapter, the authors take up debates about conscience in medicine, arguing that rather than pretending to not know what is good for patients, physicians should contend conscientiously for the patient's health and, in so doing, contend conscientiously for good medicine. The Way of Medicine is an intellectually serious yet accessible exploration of medical practice written for medical students, health care professionals, and students and scholars of bioethics and medical ethics.

Review Quotes

"Curlin and Tollefsen provide a sound diagnosis of one of the major problems facing society today: the erosion of the practice of medicine. While not an overtly theological work, The Way of Medicine equips Christian medical trainees and physicians with language that helps them better situate the practice of medicine within their faith and then reconcile that practice with the pluralistic society in which they practice." --Christian Bioethics

"The Way of Medicine offers an engaging account of an ancient approach to medicine that seeks to care for people through caring for their health. . . . In order to deepen the argument for adopting this approach, I hope that others will build on this project by more robustly articulating the moral and philosophical vision within which the Way of Medicine is at home." --Public Discourse

This short but highly insightful volume is a welcome addition to the literature onthe philosophy of medicine and ought to be recommended reading for both bioethicists interested in debates about morality in medicine as well as physicians seeking abetter understanding of their own professional vocation. --The New Bioethics

We argue that the medical profession has neglected a question that anyone thinking about going into medicine must consider: what is medicine? The question is really about medicine's point: we understand what medicine is by understanding what it is for: what is its point, purpose, or end? --Farr Curlin and Christopher Tollefsen, The Pillar

In building from foundational considerations to a moral vision for medical practice, this book is a welcome addition to the literature on medical ethics. Curlin and Tollefsen articulate the philosophical underpinnings of the Way of Medicine both in contrast to and in conversation with major current thinkers across the spectrum of medical ethics traditions, with extensive references providing further commentary and citations for additional reading. --Family Medicine

"This work is . . . engaging, offering a clear exhortation to reinsert common sense into medical practice. The book should be an inviting read for both experienced doctors and clinically naïve students." --Choice

"The Way of Medicine is a bold intervention into what has become commonplace in medicine: the physician as service provider, the physician as a mere cog in the wheel of social functioning." --Jeffrey P. Bishop, author of The Anticipatory Corpse

"The Way of Medicine is a book that I wish I could put into the hands of all medical students and health care professionals. In a winsome and persuasive way, it places the disputed questions of contemporary medicine within the broader context of the profession of medicine whose goal is the health of patients, not merely fulfilling whatever desires the patients happen to have." --Christopher Kaczor, author of Disputes in Bioethics

About the Author

Farr Curlin is Josiah C. Trent Professor of Medical Humanities at Duke University. He holds appointments in the School of Medicine; the Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities and History of Medicine; the Divinity School; and the Kenan Institute for Ethics. Curlin has authored more than one hundred and thirty articles and book chapters on medicine and bioethics.

Christopher Tollefsen is the College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina. He is the author and editor of numerous books, including Embryo: A Defense of Human Life and Lying and Christian Ethics.