Theory -- Virtue theory -- Link between virtues, principles and duties -- Medicine as a moral community -- Ends of medicine and its virtues -- Virtues in medicine -- Fidelity to trust -- Compassion -- Phronesis: medicine's indispensable virtue -- Justice -- Fortitude -- Temperance -- Integrity -- Self-effacement -- Practice of virtue -- How does virtue make a difference? -- Can the medical virtues be taught? -- Toward a comprehensive philosophy for medicine.
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This book constructs a virtue-based ethics for medicine and health care. Beginning with the problem of relating virtues to principles, the authors develop a theory that this linkage lies in the goals of medicine and the nature of medical practice as a moral community. Specific virtues such as trust, compassion, prudence, justice, courage, temperance, and self-effacement are discussed in separate chapters. The book ends by examining how a virtue-based ethic of medicine makes a difference in analysing problems like caring for the poor, research on human subjects, whether the medical virtues can be taught in professional training, and how a refurbished philosophy of medicine can enhance medicine and health care in the future.