The Patient as Person

Item

Title
The Patient as Person
ABP identifier
ABP-W-0001
Creator
Paul Ramsey
Date
1970
Type
Book
Description
Paul Ramsey’s influential 1970 work examining the moral dimensions of medical care, research, consent, and the physician-patient relationship through a theological account of covenant and fidelity.
Intellectual stream
Theological ethics
Clinical ethics & professionalism
Research ethics & consent
Verification status
Under review
Evidence confidence
High
Historical significance
Published in 1970, The Patient as Person helped bring theological ethics into the emerging conversations that became American bioethics. Ramsey used concepts of covenant and fidelity to examine the moral relationships among patients, physicians, and research subjects, addressing questions of consent, experimentation, care, and responsibility. The work is historically significant as an early sustained contribution to bioethics during the period in which the field was taking institutional and intellectual shape in the United States.