Science and Morality in Medicine: A Survey of Medical Educators

Earl R. Babbie

Nov 2023 · Univ of California Press

About this ebook

Science and Morality in Medicine: A Survey of Medical Educators by Earl R. Babbie examines a central tension in modern American medicine: whether the triumph of scientific research and technological innovation has undermined the humane foundations of patient care. Beginning from widely voiced concerns that medical education has fostered a generation of physicians more committed to scientific progress than to human compassion, Babbie undertakes the first empirical study of these claims. Drawing on a 1965–66 national survey of full-time faculty in the clinical departments of medicine and pediatrics at twelve leading medical schools, he analyzes how medical educators balance their roles as researchers, teachers, and clinicians, and how their orientations toward science shape their commitments to the physician–patient relationship. The book situates its findings within a broader history of American medical values, testing the allegation that scientific priorities erode humane practice.

The study is presented in three parts. The first directly addresses the link between scientific orientation and humane care, demonstrating that the relationship is more complex than critics assume. The second situates these results within a broader sociological framework, arguing that the rise of medical science is intertwined with a shift from individualistic to social moralities in American culture. The third projects the long-term implications of these changes for medical education and professional ethics, considering how new social moralities and enduring scientific imperatives will shape future generations of physicians. With appendices detailing methodology, sample design, and the survey instrument, Babbie’s work combines rigorous empirical analysis with probing reflection on the values of medical education. *Science and Morality in Medicine* remains a landmark in the sociological study of medicine, offering insight into how scientific progress and humane practice can coexist, and how educators shape the moral as well as technical dimensions of medical care.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1970.

About the author

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