Abstract
Background: Since its inception bioethicists have advanced an ideal of medicine with both a clinical ethics and a more general organizational perspective on medicine in society. The two have been entwined from the start with, as Hastings Centre co-founded and bioethicist Daniel Callahan said, a market-based ethos
Objective: Bioethics central focus on the autonomous individual discretely able to independently make relevant decisions on health and healthcare is examined, critiqued, and reviewed from the perspective of the practitioner and as a social construct.
Methods: Bioethical literatures from the 1970s to the present were reviewed with special attention to the work of of Hastings Centre cofounder and a leading American bioethicist, Daniel Callahan. With this, attention was paid to both the social framework and the clinical perspective of both practitioner and patient.
Conclusions: Bioethics successfully sought to replace a relational practice of care and a view of the practitioner as a social critic and “guardian” in a manner that limits the service of practitioners to both patients and society. The return to a relational ethic of care would thus be the palliative better serving the patient, the practitioner, and society at large.