The ambiguity about and lack of uniformity in informed consent practices does not lend itself to the kind of shield from malpractice liability that exists in some more concrete, standardizable aspects of medical practice.
Is a residents' field trip to a museum a condescending waste of time or an opportunity to reconnect with the meaning of their work and hone their observational skills?
Carolyn Gaebler and Lisa Soleymani Lehmann, MD, PhD, MSc
The occasional required ethics course is not conveying to medical students that training institutions take ethics and the humanities seriously and consider them central to doctoring.
Instead of succumbing to the urge to portray cultural differences as a dichotomy between clashing opposites, we should endeavor to note our common humanity, acknowledge the plurality of viewpoints within a given culture, and appreciate that cultures can evolve without being untrue to themselves.
We consult our doctors for expert medical advice, not phenomenological analysis, but perhaps a wide gulf ought not separate empirical science and research from phenomenological reflection and analysis on illness.