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Respect for patient autonomy as a medical virtue*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2015

Thomas Cook ,
Constantine D. Mavroudis ,
Jeffrey P. Jacobs  and
Constantine Mavroudis
Thomas Cook
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida, United States of America
Constantine D. Mavroudis
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America
Jeffrey P. Jacobs
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiac Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute, All Children’s Hospital and Florida Hospital for Children, Saint Petersburg, Tampa, and Orlando, Florida, United States of America
Constantine Mavroudis*
Affiliation:
Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiac Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, United States of America Department of Surgery, Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute, All Children’s Hospital and Florida Hospital for Children, Saint Petersburg, Tampa, and Orlando, Florida, United States of America
*
Correspondence to: Dr C. Mavroudis, MD, Johns Hopkins Children’s Heart Surgery, Florida Hospital for Children, 2501 N. Orange Avenue, Suite 540, Orlando, FL 32804, United States of America. Tel: 407 303 3697; Fax: 407 303 3634; E-mail: constantine.mavroudis.md@flhosp.org
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Abstract

Respect for patient autonomy is an important and indispensable principle in the ethical practice of clinical medicine. Legal tenets recognise the centrality of this principle and the inherent right of patients of sound mind – properly informed – to make their own personal medical decisions. In the course of everyday medical practice, however, challenging cases may result in ethical dilemmas for the patient, the physician, and society. Resolution of these dilemmas requires a thorough understanding of the underlying principles that allow the clinician to make informed decisions and to offer considered therapeutic options to the patient. We argue in this paper that there is also need for a transition of moral competency from understanding principles to attaining virtue in the classic Aristotelian tradition. Achieving moral virtue is based on a lifetime of learning, practising, and watching how others, who have achieved virtue, act and perform their duties. We further claim that learning moral virtue in medical practice is best realised by incorporating the lessons learnt during daily rounds where frank discussions and considered resolutions can occur under the leadership of senior practitioners who have achieved a semblance of moral excellence.

Keywords

Medical ethicspatient rightsphysician trainingutilitariandeontologicalvirtue ethics
Type
Original Articles
Information
Cardiology in the Young , Volume 25 , Issue 8: HeartWeek 2015 , December 2015 , pp. 1615 - 1620
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

*

Presented at the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Heart Institute 15th Annual International Symposium on Congenital Heart Disease, Saint Petersburg, Florida, United States of America, Friday 6 February, 2015 to Monday 9 February, 2015.

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