Embodiment and ethics: constructing medicine's two bodies

Author: Armstrong, David

Source: Sociology of Health & Illness, Volume 28, Number 6, September 2006 , pp. 866-881(16)

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Abstract:

The first `modern' presentation of medical ethics is generally acknowledged to be Percival's text of 1803. The main theme of this influential pamphlet was the way in which medical practitioners should relate to one another. Two centuries later, clinical practice has very different moral underpinnings: bioethics, which first emerged in the middle of the 20^th century, is not concerned with how doctors should interact with each other but with the responsibilities of medical practitioners to their patients. The shift from an ethics based on the relationship between practitioners to one based on the relationship with their patients is viewed as a major advance brought about by a more enlightened society engaging with the consequences of new technologies. But rather than addressing the changing picture of medical ethics in its own terms (which over the last few decades has been from the perspective of bioethics) I examine the history of medical ethics in its close relationship to the form and nature of the medical profession. Further, in a parallel thread I describe contemporary developments in public health and explore the similarities and connections between the two.

Keywords: body; medical ethics; patient; practitioner; public health

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9566.2006.00547.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of General Practice, King's College London

Publication date: 2006-09-01