Skip to main content
Log in

What Does ‘Respect’ Mean? Exploring the Moral Obligation of Health Professionals to Respect Patients

  • Perspectives
  • Published:
Journal of General Internal Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Respect is frequently invoked as an integral aspect of ethics and professionalism in medicine, yet it is often unclear what respect means in this setting. While we recognize that there are many reasonable ways to think about and use the term ‘respect’, in this paper, we develop a conception of respect that imposes a distinct moral duty on physicians. We are concerned mainly with the idea of respect for persons, or more specifically, respect for patients as persons. We develop an account of respect as recognition of the unconditional value of patients as persons. Such respect involves respecting the autonomy of patients, but we challenge the idea that respect for autonomy is a complete or self-sufficient expression of respect for persons. Furthermore, we suggest that the type of respect that physicians owe to patients is independent of a patient’s personal characteristics, and therefore, ought to be accorded equally to all. Finally, the respect that we promote has both a cognitive dimension (believing that patients have value) and a behavioral dimension (acting in accordance with this belief).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. American Medical Association. Declaration of Professional Responsibility: Medicine’s Social Contract with Humanity. http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/upload/mm/369/decofprofessional.pdf [2001 (cited 2005 Mar. 7)]

  2. Beauchamp TL, Childress JF. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 5th edn. New York: Oxford University Press; 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Medical professionalism in the new millennium: a physician charter. Ann Intern Med. 2002;136(3):243–6.

  4. Gillon R. Ethics needs principles—four can encompass the rest—and respect for autonomy should be “first among equals”. J Med Ethics. 2003;29(5):307–12.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Gostin LO. Informed consent, cultural sensitivity, and respect for persons. JAMA. 1995;274(10):844–5.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Paasche-Orlow M. The ethics of cultural competence. Acad Med. 2004;79(4):347–50.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Ainslie DC. ‘Watching’ medicine: do bioethicists respect patients’ privacy? Theor Med Bioethics. 2000;21(6):537–52.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Canadian Medical Association. Professionalism In Medicine (CMA Series of Health Care Discussion Papers). http://www.cma.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/8358/la_id/1.htm [ 2001 [cited 2005 Mar. 7]

  9. Association of American Medical Colleges. Learning Objectives for Medical Student Education: Guidelines for Medical Schools. http://www.aamc.org/meded/msop/msop1.pdf [1998 [cited 2005 Mar. 7]; Report I

  10. Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education. ACGME Outcome Project. http://www.acgme.org/outcome/comp/compFull.asp [2001 (cited 2005 Mar. 7)]

  11. Lysaught M. Respect: or, how respect for persons became respect for autonomy. J Med Philos. 2004;29(6):665–80.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Cassell EJ. The principles of the Belmont report revisited. How have respect for persons, beneficence, and justice been applied to clinical medicine? Hastings Cent Rep. 2000;30(4):12–21.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Schneider CE. The Practice of Autonomy; Patients, Doctors, and Medical Decisions. New York: Oxford University Press; 1998.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Branch WT, Jr. The ethics of caring and medical education. Acad Med. 2000;75(2):127–32.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Halpern J. From detached concern to empathy: humanizing medical practice. New York: Oxford University Press; 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  16. National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; 1979.

  17. Darwall SL. Two kinds of respect. Ethics. 1977;88:36–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Robins LS, Braddock CH, III, Fryer-Edwards KA. Using the American Board of Internal Medicine’s “Elements of Professionalism” for undergraduate ethics education. Acad Med. 2002;77(6):523–31.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Dr. Beach is a recipient of a K-08 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and a Robert Wood Johnson Generalist Physician Scholar.

Potential Financial Conflicts of Interest

None of the authors has any financial conflict of interest to report.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mary Catherine Beach MD, MPH.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Beach, M.C., Duggan, P.S., Cassel, C.K. et al. What Does ‘Respect’ Mean? Exploring the Moral Obligation of Health Professionals to Respect Patients. J GEN INTERN MED 22, 692–695 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-006-0054-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-006-0054-7

Key words

Navigation