In this part of a series on medical ethics, Thomas Ballantine, William Bennett, John Curnutte, Allen Dyer, and Chase Peterson discuss the ethical and humanistic elements of medical care. They note that a physician’s ethical conflicts depend heavily on his or her areas of practice. The panelists share their own experiences with making difficult decisions quickly and the matter of etiquette and building trust with patients. The issue of doctors’ public perception is raised, including the “crisis of expectation” regarding what doctors can actually provide; here, the panelists review some common criticisms of the medical profession. Finally, they discuss psychological reactions to a “curable” disease and how one might grapple with the uncurable.
At the time of this interview, Ballantine was professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. Bennett was chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Curnutte was a research fellow in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the Sidney Farber Cancer Institute. Dyer, a Fellow at the National Humanities Center (1981-82), was professor of psychiatry at Duke Medical Center. Peterson was vice president for health sciences at the University of Utah.
This edition of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
