What drives medicine? What influences the practice and outcome of medicine?
It’s interesting to hear a nun, who is also a doctor, criticising medicine for being based on 3 medical models which actually harm patients. They are inaccurate models, Sr Mary Diana Dreger M.D., said at the recent 84th Annual Medical Conference of the U.S. Catholic Medical Association.
She explained, “Today as Catholic physicians, we find ourselves speaking against, contradicting much that has made its way into the medical profession and yet is destroying the profession of medicine.”
She described three faulty models of medicine: the technological imperative which says, if it can be done, it will be done; the business model where the health carer is obligated to respond to the interests of the client or consumer, minimising care while maximising profits; and the legal model where the state licenses and so the state decides.
“Catholic physicians must reject these inaccurate models of medicine,” said Sr Diana. “Neither law nor business nor science accurately represents the essence of medicine. The moral behaviour of Catholic physicians is perfectly in keeping with the practice of good medicine.”
Noting that the sick person wants healing and compassion, she recalled that “medicine is about doing good for another person, a moral endeavour. A physician wants the good of another and the patient trusts the physician will do good.”
Having completed her training as a doctor at Vanderbilt University she now works in a family health clinic where her patients are mostly uninsured immigrants.
Here in this YouTube video you can hear her speak on Physicians or Technicians: Why Conscience Matters:
Resources:
Listen to philosopher Angie Hobbs’s short talk on the value of conscience: click here