Abstract
The belief that health care should be a beneficent enterprise is explicit in the “Principles of Medical Ethics” adopted by the American Medical Association in 1957. The first section states that “the principal objective of the medical profession is to render service to humanity with full respect of the dignity of man” ([1], p. 39). It is not unreasonable to suggest that this objective would be acceptable to almost all health care personnel and institutions. The ideal and norm of ‘service tempered by respect’ is one worthy of moral admiration. If service is accurately interpreted to mean benefit, then a grounding of this objective in the principle of beneficence seems warranted.
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© 1982 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland
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Shelp, E.E. (1982). To Benefit and Respect Persons: A Challenge for Beneficence in Health Care. In: Shelp, E.E. (eds) Beneficence and Health Care. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 11. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7769-3_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-7769-3_9
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