| Description |
xvi, 287 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Contents |
The puzzling case of the broken arm -- Hernias, diets, and drugs -- Why physicians cannot know what will benefit patients -- Sacrificing patient benefit to protect patient rights -- Societal interests and duties to others -- The new, limited, twenty-first-century role for physicians as patient assistants -- Abandoning modern medical concepts: doctor's "orders" and hospital "discharge" -- Medicine can't "indicate": so why do we talk that way? --"Treatments of choice" and "medical necessity": who is fooling whom? -- Abandoning informed consent -- Why physicians get it wrong and the alternatives to consent: patient choice and deep value pairing -- The end of prescribing: why prescription writing is irrational -- The alternatives to prescribing -- Are fat people overweight? -- Beyond prettiness: death, disease, and being fat -- Universal but varied health insurance: only separate is equal -- Health insurance: the case for multiple lists -- Why hospice care should not be a part of ideal health care I: the history of the hospice -- Why hospice care should not be a part of ideal health care II: hospice in a postmodern era -- Randomized human experimentation: the modern dilemma -- Randomized human experimentation: a proposal for the new medicine -- Clinical practice guidelines and why they are wrong -- Outcomes research and how values sneak into finding of fact -- The consensus of medical experts and why it is wrong so often |
| Summary |
"Robert Veatch is one of the founding fathers of contemporary bioethics. Patient, Heal Thyself is on a theme he has developed for thirty years: that a fundamental and radical change is sweeping through the American health-care system that has so far received relatively little attention, a change that puts the patient in charge of treatment to an unprecedented extent. This change is so fundamental and far-reaching that Veatch claims we are in the early stages of a "new medicine" that will replace what we think of as modern medical practice." |
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"The change is in how we think about medical decision-making. Whereas modern medicine's core idea was that medical decisions should be based on the cold, hard facts of science-the province of the doctor-the "new medicine" reflects the notion that all medical decisions must impose value judgments. Since physicians can claim no expertise on making those value judgments, the pendulum has swung greatly toward the patient in evaluating alternatives and making decisions about their treatment." "Veatch uses a range of fascinating contemporary and historical examples to reveal how values underlie almost all medical procedures, and illustrate his case that this change is inevitable and a positive trend for patients."--BOOK JACKET |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [259]-275) and index |
| Subject |
Medicine -- Decision making.
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Medical ethics.
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Medical care -- United States.
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Patient Participation -- trends.
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Delivery of Health Care -- trends.
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Personal Autonomy.
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Philosophy, Medical.
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Physician-Patient Relations.
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| LC no. |
2008003515 |
| ISBN |
9780195313727 (alk. paper) |
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0195313720 (alk. paper) |
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