Georgetown Professor Keynotes 6th Annual John Collins Harvey Lecture
March 24, 2009
In the latest lecture of the John Collins Harvey Lecture Series, Dr. Robert Veatch led Georgetown’s bioethics community in a discussion concerning the role of the medical practitioner in a post-modern world. Referencing his latest book, Patient, Heal Thyself, Dr. Veatch argued that all medical decisions require value judgments that the average medical professional is unqualified to make. “Physicians don’t have pipelines to correct answers,” he said. "Especially concerning questions of what is best for an individual given their numerous needs, including non-medical interest." Veatch advocates what he calls“deep value pairings” between patients and physicians so that when value-based decisions are not avoidable, at least the values of the physician are in line with those of the patient.
This proposition sparked a 90-minute discussion with a panel of Georgetown’s leading medical ethicists, (Drs. James Duffy, Michael Gallagher, Sara Moore and Edmund Pellegrino) about the balance between patient autonomy and medical expertise. Pellegrino and the members of the panel disagreed with Veatch’s proposition, continuing to believe that physicians can work with patients and their surrogates in a model of shared decision-making to promote healing.
The John Collins Harvey Lecture is an endowed lecture raised by the friends and colleagues of John Collins Harvey, MD, PhD and Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the Center for Clinical Bioethics. Dr. Harvey was on the faculty of the Division of General Internal Medicine at Georgetown University for many years.
Submit your news at any time to the GUMC Office of Communications at gumccomm@georgetown.edu.
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