著者

松川 俊夫

出版者

日本医学哲学・倫理学会

雑誌

医学哲学 医学倫理 (ISSN:02896427)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.20, pp.56-66, 2002-11-10 (Released:2018-02-01)

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The concept of 'imperfect duty (or right)' is forgotten in modern ethics. But this concept is very efficient for medical ethics. For example, if we examine the duties of a physician and the rights of a patient by giving our eyes to imperfect duties and rights, we can get a clue to the fine understanding of the physician-patient relationship. Now that paternalism in the physician-patient relationship is said to be rejected, the autonomy of the patient is a kind of trump card. And many bioethicists and laymen adjudge that the physician-patient relationship must base itself on the 'contract.' But Japanese 'SEKEN1 ('the world' or the traditional Japanese human relationship) between a physician and a patient postulates one sort of physician's paternalism. And the physician-patient relationship based on a contract would bring some moral hazard to a physician. We must understand what is the moral problem in the physician-patient relationship, and the examination of imperfect duties (and rights) will lead us to the solution of that. In many respects, we follow the study of the history of ideas on the imperfect duty in Millard Schumaker's "Sharing without Reckoning."