Medical Harm : Historical, Conceptual and Ethical Dimensions of Iatrogenic Illness

by Virginia Ashby Sharpe , Alan I. Faden

• ISBN13: 9780521571333
• ISBN10: 0521571332
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-02-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

It is estimated that up to thirteen percent of hospital admissions result from the adverse effects of diagnosis or treatment, and that anywhere from 44,000 to 98,000 hospital deaths annually are the result of errors. The obligation to "do no harm" has been central to medical conduct since ancient times, yet iatrogenic illness and medical error have now come to be recognized as significant risk factors in health care delivery. This book integrates history, philosophy, medical ethics and empirical data to examine the concept and phenomenon of medical harm. Issues covered include medical error, appropriateness of care, acceptable risk and practitioner accountability, and recommendations for limiting iatrogenic harm.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(20)
Part I
Divided loyalties: harm to the profession vs. harm to the patient	21	(15)
Medical epistemology, medical authority and shifting interpretations of beneficence and nonmaleficence	36	(25)
Medical harms and patients' rights: the democratization of medical morality	61	(20)
Part II
The moral basis of medicine: why 'do no harm'?	81	(19)
Due care as a specification of the duty to 'do no harm'	100	(15)
Conceptual and ethical dimensions of medical harm	115	(38)
Part III
From hospitalism to nosocomial infection control	153	(22)
Adverse effects of drug treatment	175	(19)
Unnecessary surgery	194	(19)
The concept of appropriateness in patient care	213	(17)
Recommendations for limiting iatrogenic harm	230	(11)
Appendix	241	(7)
Bibliography	248	(23)
Index	271