{"title":"Reenvisioning Mission and Moral Leadership in Health Care: an interview with Sachin Jain.","authors":"Sachin Jain, Lauren Taylor, Kelsey N Berry","doi":"10.1353/pbm.2025.a962024","DOIUrl":"10.1353/pbm.2025.a962024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>To many participants in today's US health-care system, it can seem as if health care has lost its way. Complex, fragmented systems. Difficulty accessing care. Strain on physicians. Financial burdens for patients. Yet there are also many opportunities to improve care, patient and provider experience, and-ultimately- health. It won't be easy, according to SCAN Group and Health Plan President and CEO, Dr. Sachin Jain, MD, MBA. It requires nothing less than examining the paradigms of thought and practice that tend to maintain \"business as usual\" in the health-care industry. It will require reenvisioning mission, moral leadership, and what patient-centeredness means in health care.</p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"68 2","pages":"283-296"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144250911","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Virtue of <i>Studiositas</i> in Medical Education.","authors":"Benjamin W Frush","doi":"","DOIUrl":"","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Medical education, while a process of deep moral formation, lacks any account of how students and trainees are to morally approach the process of learning. The classical understanding of the vice curiositas and the virtue studiositas, as described by the theologian Paul Griffiths, provides a framework to help understand the better and worse ways that students and trainees can engage in the learning experience. While medical school may powerfully inculcate the vice of curiositas, such a posture to learning fails when one is faced with the novel challenges of clinical care. Given the challenges inherent to moral formation in medicine, students and trainees might find communities that catechize the virtue of studiositas outside of the boundaries of the medical school and hospital.</p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"68 1","pages":"87-98"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143588272","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Approaching Ethical Challenges at the Intersection of Medical and Social Care.","authors":"Lauren Taylor, Monica E Peek, Laura M Gottlieb","doi":"10.1353/pbm.2025.a962016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2025.a962016","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This article discusses tensions related to expectations about the health-care sector's investment in the social drivers of health. As social-care roles and responsibilities are defined, the health-care sector needs a clearer set of ethical principles to guide policy and practice. Norman Daniels's accountability for reasonableness (A4R) approach offers a framework for the development of more formal approaches, by structuring organization-wide conversations about the relevant values and providing a vocabulary for talking about the ethical dilemmas involved in questions of justice and organizational responsibility.</p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"68 2","pages":"161-173"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2025-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144250897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Organismal Superposition and Death","authors":"Michael Nair-Collins","doi":"10.1353/pbm.2024.a919708","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2024.a919708","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>ABSTRACT:</p><p>Organismal superposition holds that the same individual both is and is not an organism, as a consequence of organismal pluralism. When coupled with the assumption that death is the cessation of an organism, this entails that there is no unique answer as to whether brain death is biological death. This essay argues that concerns about organismal pluralism and superposition do not undermine a theory of biological death, nor entail any metaphysical indeterminacy about the biological vital status of a brain-dead individual.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"224 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139909935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Organismal Superposition Problem and Nihilist Challenge in the Definition of Death","authors":"Piotr Grzegorz Nowak","doi":"10.1353/pbm.2024.a919707","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2024.a919707","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>ABSTRACT:</p><p>According to the mainstream bioethical stance, death constitutes the termination of an organism. This essay argues that such an understanding of death is inappropriate in the usual context of determining death, since it also has a social bearing. There are two reasons to justify this argument. First, the mainstream bioethical definition generates an organismal superposition challenge, according to which a given patient in a single physiological state might be both alive and dead, like Schrödinger's cat. Therefore, there is no clear answer as to whether organ retrieval from a brain-dead patient is an act of killing or not. Second, when combined with the dead donor rule, the mainstream position in the definition of death might lead to ethically unacceptable verdicts, since there is a discrepancy between terminating an organism and depriving someone of moral status.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"176 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139910746","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Valuing the Acute Subjective Experience","authors":"Katherine Cheung, Brian D. Earp, David B. Yaden","doi":"10.1353/pbm.2024.a919717","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2024.a919717","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>ABSTRACT:</p><p>Psychedelics, including psilocybin, and other consciousness-altering compounds such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), currently are being scientifically investigated for their potential therapeutic uses, with a primary focus on measurable outcomes: for example, alleviation of symptoms or increases in self-reported well-being. Accordingly, much recent discussion about the possible value of these substances has turned on estimates of the magnitude and duration of persisting positive effects in comparison to harms. However, many have described the value of a psychedelic experience with little or no reference to such therapeutic benefits, instead seeming to find the experience valuable in its own right. How can we make sense of such testimony? Could a psychedelic experience be valuable even if there were no persisting beneficial effects? If so, how? Using the concept of psychological richness, combined with insights from the philosophy of aesthetics and the enhancement literature, this essay explores potential sources of value in the acute subjective experience, apart from the value derived from persisting beneficial effects.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"32 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139910739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Lived Religion in Religious Vaccine Exemptions","authors":"Hajung Lee","doi":"10.1353/pbm.2024.a919713","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2024.a919713","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>ABSTRACT:</p><p>This essay explores a more inclusive and equitable interpretation of \"religion\" within the context of religious vaccine exemptions. The existing literature critiques the prevalent interpretation of the meaning of religion in religious exemption cases, but frequently overlooks the importance of incorporating the concept of \"lived religion.\" This essay introduces the concept of lived religion from religious studies, elucidates why this lived religion approach is crucial for redefining \"religion,\" and illustrates its application in the domain of religious vaccine exemptions. The author contends that broadening the meaning of religion by employing the concept of lived religion would promote a more inclusive and equitable implementation of religious vaccine exemptions.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"19 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139910744","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Logan Neitzke-Spruill, Nese Devenot, Dominic Sisti, Lynnette A. Averill, Amy L. McGuire
{"title":"Bio-Psycho-Spiritual Perspectives on Psychedelics: Clinical and Ethical Implications","authors":"Logan Neitzke-Spruill, Nese Devenot, Dominic Sisti, Lynnette A. Averill, Amy L. McGuire","doi":"10.1353/pbm.2024.a919715","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2024.a919715","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>ABSTRACT:</p><p>Psychedelics have again become a subject of widespread interest, owing to the reinvigoration of research into their traditional uses, possible medical applications, and social implications. As evidence for psychedelics' clinical potential mounts, the field has increasingly focused on searching for mechanisms to explain the effects of psychedelics and therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT). This paper reviews three general frameworks that encompass several prominent models for understanding psychedelics' effects—specifically, neurobiological, psychological, and spiritual frameworks. Following our review, the implications of each framework for ethics and professional competencies in the implementation of psychedelics as medicines are explored. We suggest that interdisciplinary education may be necessary to improve communication between researchers, develop models that effectively incorporate multiple levels of analysis, and facilitate collaboration between professionals with diverse backgrounds in the implementation of psychedelic medicines. We also address pitfalls associated with overemphasis on neuro-mechanisms, risks associated with instigating vulnerable states of consciousness, and hurdles associated with the integration of spiritual frameworks in medicine. Ultimately, as psychedelics push the boundaries of explanatory frameworks focused on one level of analysis, developing new and more useful models to reflect knowledge being produced in this field should be a central aim of psychedelic science going forward.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"144 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139910859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Euthanasia and End-of-Life Decisions: From the Empirical Turn to Moral Intuitionism","authors":"Marta Spranzi","doi":"10.1353/pbm.2024.a919711","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2024.a919711","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>ABSTRACT:</p><p>Most medical learned societies have endorsed both \"equivalence\" between all forms of withholding or withdrawing treatment and the \"discontinuity\" between euthanasia and practices to withhold or withdraw treatment. While the latter are morally acceptable insofar as they consist in letting the patient die, the former constitutes an illegitimate act of actively interfering with a patient's life. The moral distinction between killing and letting die has been hotly debated both conceptually and empirically, most notably by experimental philosophers, with inconclusive results. This article employs a \"revisionary\" intuititionist perspective to discuss the results of a clinical ethics study about intensivists' perceptions of withhold or withdraw decisions. The results show that practitioners' moral experience is at odds with both the discontinuity and equivalence theses. This outcome allows us to revisit certain concepts, such as intention and causal relationship, that are prominent in the conceptual debate. Intensivists also regard end-of-life decisions as being on a scale from least to most active, and whether they regard active forms of end-of-life decisions as ethically acceptable depends on the overarching professional values they endorse: the patient's best chances of survival, or the patient's quality of life.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"41 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139910870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Does Bioethics Need Ethical Theories?","authors":"Wayne Sumner","doi":"10.1353/pbm.2024.a919718","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2024.a919718","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>ABSTRACT:</p><p>The relationship between philosophy and bioethics remains a matter of perennial debate, but there does appear to be a consensus on one issue: whatever bioethics might want to borrow from philosophical ethics, it won't be normative theories. This essay argues that theories can have an important role to play in bioethics, though it might not be the one traditionally assumed by philosophers.</p></p>","PeriodicalId":54627,"journal":{"name":"Perspectives in Biology and Medicine","volume":"52 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139910924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}