Trust in Medicine
Its Nature, Justification, Significance, and Decline

Examines trust, its definition, value, and decline from the perspective of a physician and a medical ethicist.

Markus Wolfensberger (Author), Anthony Wrigley (Author)

9781108732734, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 July 2021

270 pages, 5 b/w illus. 2 tables
22.7 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.405 kg

'I thoroughly enjoyed reading Trust in Medicine: Its Nature, Justification, Significance, and Decline by Wolfensberger and Wrigley. It is a very clear example of how to do philosophical bioethics that engages closely with the empirical context and with practical clinical issues. The book thoroughly considers the philosophical literature on Trust and then, in a careful and strategic manner applies the lessons of that literature to the clinical context and the doctor- patient relationship. It is an extended piece of bioethics that will engage and challenge philosophers, bioethicists and clinicians. When we imagine applied philosophical bioethics, this is the kind of work that should come to mind.' Mark Sheehan, University of Oxford

Over the past decades, public trust in medical professionals has steadily declined. This decline of trust and its replacement by ever tighter regulations is increasingly frustrating physicians. However, most discussions of trust are either abstract philosophical discussions or social science investigations not easily accessible to clinicians. The authors, one a surgeon-turned-philosopher, the other an analytical philosopher working in medical ethics, joined their expertise to write a book which straddles the gap between the practical and theoretical. Using an approach grounded in the methods of conceptual analysis found in analytical philosophy which also draws from approaches to medical diagnosis, the authors have conceived an internally coherent and comprehensive definition of trust to help elucidate the concept and explain its decline in the medical context. This book should appeal to all interested in the ongoing debate about the decline of trust - be it as medical professionals, medical ethicists, medical lawyers, or philosophers.

Part I. Introduction: 1. Introduction
2. Empirical evidence for the decline of trust
Part II. The Nature of Trust: 3. A critical analysis of existing definitions of trust in medicine
4. Proposing a new type of definition: the pattern-based definition
5. A Pattern-based definition of trust
6. Differentiating trust from related concepts
7. Adapting the definition of trust to different situations
Part III. Justification of Trust: 8. Justification of epistemic trust
9. Justification of patients' trust in physicians
Part IV. Significance of Trust: 10. Instrumental utility of trust
11. The moral value of trust
Part V. The Decline of Trust: 12. Reasons for the decline of trust
Part VI. Perspectives: 13. Can we restore trust? List of references
Index.

Subject Areas: Bio-ethics [PSAD], Medical ethics & professional conduct [MBDC], Medical & healthcare law [LNTM], Ethics & moral philosophy [HPQ]