COVER DESIGN: A SHAHAN
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Jos VM Welie
In the Face of Suffering: The Philosophical-Anthropological Foundations of Clinical Ethics In contemporary health care ethics, respect for patient autonomy is often considered the primary ethical principle, trumping all others. Many health care ethicists and clinicians alike presume that it is impossible to make judgments about patients' best interests. Patients and their health care providers meet as moral strangers. Hence, the conventional wisdom is that clinical interactions should be based on a contractual relationship between two respectful but estranged people. Dr Jos Welie challenges this moral stranger metaphor and attempts to restore the phenomenon of intersubjective, benevolent care. He presents a philosophical-anthropological foundation for clinical ethics in which such notions as suffering, sympathy and solidarity are central.
The author's multidisciplinary background in medicine, philosophy and law, and his experience as a
clinical ethicist, merge in this powerful argument for a personalist ethics in health care. His extensive
discourse with so many established names in both European and American philosophy and bioethics
will make this book a valuable resource to many professionals.
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