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KMID : 1025620040070010103
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Korean Journal of Medical Ethics
2004 Volume.7 No. 1 p.103 ~ p.112
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Physicians’ Attitudes towards Patients’ Suffering
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You Ho-Jong
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Abstract
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Among the various aims of medical treatment, the alleviation of patients’ suffering is often neglected. One reason for this is the attitude of physicians towards the suffering of their patients. This paper examines the question of whether or not that attitude is ethical.
(1) Many physicians claim that the alleviation of patients’ suffering is one of the aims of medical treatment, but that it is not their primary aim. They defend this view by arguing that when patients are cured of their diseases, the alleviation of their suffering naturally follows. I object to this line of reasoning on the grounds that there are many cases in which diseases cannot be cured, but the suffering of patients can be alleviated.
(2) Many physicians assert that they should remain calm in the face of their patients’ suffering. I agree with this claim, since the attitude serves the benefit of patients, but maintain that a calm attitude needs to be clearly distinguished from indifference to patients’ suffering.
(3) Many physicians think that it is their duty to alleviate only their patients’ physical, as opposed to mental, suffering, except in cases of mentally diseased patients. While this is understandable from the point of view of social efficiency, I assert that physicians have a duty to pay attention to, and to understand, their patients’ mental suffering.
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KEYWORD
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aims of medical treatment, patients’ suffering, the alleviation of suffering, physicians’ duties, physicians’ attitudes
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