The Physician's Covenant: Images of the Healer in Medical Ethics

by William F. May

A discussion of Christian ethics focuses on the physician's image as a parent, warrior against death, expert, and teacher, and the oath that guides his or her practice

208 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1983

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

William May's, "The Physician's Covenant," should be a contemporary classic in medical ethics. Published in 1983, it remains relevant today. May argues that images of the medical practitioner are often more powerful in our culture than mere descriptive labels, and I agree. Metaphors, images, and myths structure our reality whether or not we admit it. May examines various images of the physician: parent, fighter, technician, and teacher, and finds truth in all of them, though they are misleading if taken to be the whole of what a physician should be. He focuses on the Biblical idea of "covenant" as being the proper model for the patient-physician relationship. This model goes beyond the technical contractual model, and in it both physician and patient have mutual responsibilities to one another. The physician is also bound by the covenant to care about patients who are less fortunate or who cannot afford treatment. Today, doctors need a model that goes beyond the technical traps of contemporary managed care. May's model should be taken seriously as an alternative to a dehumanizing system that refuses to treat the individual patient as person but more as a cog in a machine. Covenants are between persons, and if medicine recognizes this, it will perform its duty of caring for the patient in need in a more effective, yet more compassionate, way.