Autonomy: How it has become problematic for medicine

Abstract

AbstractThis essay arises from the current state of the American medical system. Neither patients nor practitioners are satisfied. This essay focuses on an important source of discontent, the dependence on ethical principlism which is unsupported by a moral virtue. This ethical system is bounded by no recognition of telos of medicine and no articulation of how medicine can advance human flourishing. This essay explores how principlism, and autonomy in particular, attained a dominant stature, and how it damaged patient–practitioner relationships. This essay will conclude with a brief description about the potential benefits of covenantal relationships in medicine.