The Christian Virtues in Medical Practice

by Edmund D. Pellegrino, David C. Thomasma, David G. Miller

Christian health care professionals in our secular and pluralistic society often face uncertainty about the place religious faith holds in today's medical practice. Through an examination of a virtue-based ethics, this book proposes a theological view of medical ethics that helps the Christian physician reconcile faith, reason, and professional duty.

Edmund D. Pellegrino and David C. Thomasma trace the history of virtue in moral thought, and they examine current debate about a virtue ethic's place in contemporary bioethics. Their proposal balances theological ethics, based on the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with contemporary medical ethics, based on the principles of beneficence, justice, and autonomy. The result is a theory of clinical ethics that centers on the virtue of charity and is manifest in practical moral decisions.

Using Christian bioethical principles, the authors address today's divisive issues in medicine. For health care providers and all those involved in the fields of ethics and religion, this volume shows how faith and reason can combine to create the best possible healing relationship between health care professional and patient.

176 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1996

Reviews

[David Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this short work, Edmund Pelligrino and David Thomasma offers readers a chance to engage in the questions of what it means to be Christian (he says Catholic) physician. Taking up the mantle of virtue ethics, Pelligrino & Thomasma offer a side-by-side comparison of the contemporary four pillars of bioethics and the theological virtues of the church catholic. In doing so, they showcase the inadaquecy of the secular bioethics for the Christian physician while indicating how the practice should presuppose a tradition grounded in faith, hope, and charity. When discussing a certain virtue, the authors provide relevant situations of medical decision making/actions that exhibit what a virtuous physician would do.

This book is excellent primer for seeking out answers on Christian medicine and medical ethics provided by the Dr. Pelligrino who was a well-respected physician and pioneer for Christian medical ethics.