Volume 69 Number 6 November 2002	back to contents

John Carroll Professor of Medicine and Medical Ethics, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC.

Address all correspondence to Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., Center for Clinical Bioethics, GUMC, 4000 Reservoir Road NW, Building D Room 234, Washington, DC 20007.

Presented at the Issues in Medical Ethics 2000 Conference at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY on November 3, 2000.

ABSTRACT

The putative loss of “professionalism” in medicine has of late become of serious concern to practitioners, educators, ethicists and the public. Impassioned pleas for its restitution abound. Serious ethical obligations are linked to the idea of a profession. Yet, most of the definitions have been socio-historical, political or legal. Important as these aspects may be, there is need for a firmly grounded ethical derivation of the moral dimensions of professionalism. This essay undertakes to provide a philosophical grounding for ethically responsible professionalism in the phenomena of clinical medicine, in the character of the professional, and in virtue theory.

KEYWORDS

Professionalism, profession, virtue, virtue ethics, medical education

MSSM Home

Back Issues | Indexes | Search | Journal Home