Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-22-2016
Publication Title
Studies in Christian Ethics
Volume
30
Issue
1
First Page
83
Last Page
99
Abstract
In The Anticipatory Corpse: Medicine, Power, and the Care of the Dying, Jeffrey Bishop argues that contemporary medicine has (among other things) reduced the patient from a ‘subject’ to an ‘object’. He extends this charge to all corners of contemporary medicine. But in his book’s concluding chapter, ‘Anticipating Life’, he turns toward a constructive proposal, asking, in closing, ‘[m]ight it not be that only theology can save medicine?’ Toward answering Bishop’s query, I turn to the thought of Paul Ramsey. Ramsey is helpful because, in thinking through and responding to contemporary moral dilemmas, he begins with his theological commitments and thereby may avoid the reductive tendencies that Bishop argues affect contemporary medicine. Specifically, Ramsey’s account of the ‘patient as person’, I will argue, delimits what the medical endeavor may do and might offer resources to help save medicine.
Recommended Citation
Ranganathan, B. (2017). Might Only Theology Save Medicine? Some Ideas from Ramsey. Studies in Christian Ethics, 30(1), 83–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946816674152
Comments
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Sage in Studies in Christian Ethics on October 22, 2016, available online: https://doi.org/10.1177/0953946816674152
Reuse restricted to noncommercial and no derivative uses.