Beziehung in der medizinischen Ethik
Ausgabe: 4/2012
58. Jahrgang
Der Hass auf die Wohltäter. Anthropologische und ethische Überlegungen zur Arzt-Patienten-Beziehung
The doctor-patient relationship is characterized by a structural asymmetry, which can only partially be teased apart. Doctors help, but they also discover and expose personal secrets. Most of all they make life and death decisions. Like any other benefactor they attract gratitude and hatred in equal measure, which can liable to be linked to and directed at the physician, personally or professionally. With the adoption of medical machinery, which, by definition can only see patients only as objects, hatred is an ever more common response. Since this involves lashing out at others, the patients words and actions are not necessarily targeted or discriminant, so even volunteers in medical settings and relatives can be affected. Ethically, medical treatment shoud aim to respect the patient as a subject and Homo absconditus. Even if it is not possible to abolish hatred as an anthropological and existential factor in this context, it can be channeled. Therefore, working to avoid exaggerated expectations and related fantasies of salvation in the doctor-patient relationship is essential.
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