Help, Obligatory and Supererogatory Acts in Medical Practice and Bioethics

Abstract

The article discusses the problems concerning the use of the term help with reference to physician’s actions, which include treatment and saving life. The authors consider various models of the physician–patient relationship against the background of the commonly shared values in modern pluralistic liberal societies. The authors claim that the performance of a physician’s duties which are stipulated by the contract with the patient does not require any altruistic actions, and, consequently, it cannot be called help. However the term help can be applied adequately in those medical specialties (like oncology, neonatology, psychiatry or palliative care) in which patients are particularly vulnerable and in need of long–term medical care. In such areas of medicine a morally good medical practice involves willingness to surpass the duties determined by a medical code. Such willingness is expressed in a constant disposition to acts for the good of the patients and even in one’s readiness to sacrifice some of one’s own good.