Empathic care as a command of a new clinical bioethics

Abstract

The current context of healthcare, which perpetuates the subordinate position of the patient and the violation of patients’ rights, demands the construction of a bioethical theory based on the ethical commitment to change this reality. Consequently, Principialism, the hegemonic line of Clinical Bioethics, needs to be overcome, and another framework needs to be formulated, such as what is now proposed based on clinical empathy and empathic care. This new framework for Clinical Bioethics conforms to an innovative aspect called “Healthcare Bioethics,” which has been the subject of a series of studies. These studies aimed at the theoretical structure of Healthcare Bioethics but did not focus on empathic care as an ethical structuring of this new theoretical-normative proposition. This article proposes theoretical contributions to Healthcare Bioethics based on clinical empathy and, specifically, by formulating the empathic care concept as a constituent and structuring command of this new aspect of Clinical Bioethics. Empathic care is a central ethical command of the further reference of clinical practice, Healthcare Bioethics. However, as seen, empathy is a motivational phenomenon conditioned to subjective factors that concern the individuals themselves and the context in which they find themselves. Although empathy is essential to our well-being, self-esteem, sense of belonging, and positive emotions, often, the choice is not to be empathic, given the costs of being so. This is also true in healthcare. Thus, health institutions and systems must adopt training, continuing education of health professionals, and other motivational interventions to drive empathic choice. It is an illusion to expect this choice to be made predominantly without creating factors that motivate empathic care, which must be an ethical substrate for constructing these motivational interventions. Therefore, empathic care should be incorporated into the health area as a new paradigm that founds institutions and health systems centered on the patient and the quality of care.