Physicians and the Community of Physicians: An Account of Collective Responsibilities

Editor\u27s note: This paper was read at the eighth annual University of Dayton Philosophy Colloquium, held in 1979. In the course of this paper, I will first present a sketch of some of the cardinal characteristics of professions, as these characteristics bear upon understanding their collective responsibilities. After a brief review of these distinguishing characteristics, I will compare the different senses of obligations that one can attribute to professions and then to their members. I will first examine what is involved in simply being a member of a profession, then a member of a profession within a particular governmental organization (i.e., a state), and finally, the collective responsibility of members of particular professional associations. On the basis of these background reflections, I will proceed to address some particular issues concerning the collective responsibilities of physicians

Bioethics in Latin America: 1989-1991

In our region, bioethics as an academic discipline and a public movement is still in its beginning stages. The historical changes resulting from scientific and technological advances in biomedicine and from the liberal and pluralist character of industrialized countries have barely begun to occur in the developing countries of Latin America, which remain largely “pretechnical” in their orientation. Bioethics as a secular discipline, with its principles of beneficence, autonomy, and justice, and its emphasis on the rational and free agent in the therapeutic relationship, has not yet reached Latin America.Facultad de Ciencias Médica

Can there be bioethical expertise? Bioethicists as secular priests

Lecture held at University of Bologna, 2000Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - Biblioteca Centrale - P.le Aldo Moro, 7 , Rome / CNR - Consiglio Nazionale delle RichercheSIGLEITItal