Flashcards on The Principle of Totality in Medical Ethics
The Principle of Totality in Medical Ethics: A Student Guide
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Therapeutic Principle in Medical Ethics
12 cards
Card 1
Question: What is the principle of totality (therapeutic principle) in medical ethics?
Answer: A fundamental principle that views the human body as a unitary whole of distinct parts; it allows harmful intervention on a part of the body when nece
Card 2
Question: How does the principle of inviolability of life relate to the therapeutic principle?
Answer: The inviolability of life remains primary but is applied by permitting intervention on a body part when needed to save the whole person; thus the ther
Card 3
Question: Give a standard example that illustrates the therapeutic principle.
Answer: A surgeon removing an inflamed appendix is morally justified and obligated if the removal is necessary to protect the body and life of the patient.
Card 4
Question: What conditions must be met to legitimately apply the therapeutic principle?
Answer: (1) Intervention is on the afflicted part or the direct cause of harm; (2) no other means exist to correct the condition; (3) there is a good and prop
Card 5
Question: How does the therapeutic principle treat physical integrity compared to life?
Answer: While life is primary, physical integrity is also an important personal good that may be risked or harmed only for the benefit of a higher good (the l
Card 6
Question: What kinds of medical cases have special applications of the therapeutic principle?
Answer: Tumor removal, high-risk operations, therapeutic sterilization resulting from excision of a uterine tumor, organ transplantation, and gene therapy.
Card 7
Question: When might the principle of double effect be relevant in applying the therapeutic principle?
Answer: When a direct intervention aimed at a good end causes concomitant damage (e.g., harm from tumor removal or sterilization as a side effect), the concom
Card 8
Question: What are the debated extensions of the concept of totality beyond the organic body?
Answer: Some ethicists try to extend totality to include psychological or psychosocial well-being or to focus on overall final results regardless of means; th
Card 9
Question: Why do some argue against using psychological or psychosocial reasons alone to justify physical mutilations?
Answer: Because using psychological/psychosocial motivations without considering the physical organism and the person's total moral and spiritual good abandon
Card 10
Question: What is the 'best interpretation' of totality according to the text?
Answer: A personalist totality that includes the physical, spiritual, and moral totality of the person, where the good of the physical organism is respected w