Phenomenological approaches to the doctor-patient relationship

Abstract

Scholars largely agree that there is a need today for a comprehensive philosophy of medicine (Pellegrino, 2001; Wildes 2001). It is with such a foundation that we analyze moral dilemmas generated by medical technology, such as genetic technologies and the uses (and misuses) of genetic testing and screening. In this respect however there is profound disagreement on what a philosophy of medicine should look like. The socially constructed philosophy as proposed by various authors including Kevin Wildes and Robert Veatch contrasts with the teleological approaches as proposed by Edmund Pellegrino. I shall briefly look at both here, bowing admittedly in favour of a teleological approach, using the basis of genetic testing as a reason to why an ontology of the doctor-patient relationship is, in my opinion, the best approach for a comprehensive philosophy of medicine, even in the post-modern world we live in.