patient dignity

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The question guiding this paper is: how do we preserve patient dignity in the health care context? I propose and defend a relational and care approach to dignity where the basis of dignity is found in the relationships of care we bear to one another. More specifically, we each have individual equal worth because we have been cared for. Without care we would not reach maturity and thrive to the degree we are each able. It is in forging a relation of care with another, or the actual willingness of some to do so, that individual dignity is at once conferred and actualised. In a relational and care approach to dignity the basis of equal individual worth is not inextricably linked to a particular capacity or set of attributes we as individuals are assumed to possess. Rather than focusing on the 'what' of dignity - finding the essence of dignity - a relational approach allows us to focus on how and why respect for individual dignity is important. With this approach to individual dignity in mind, I suggest and defend that it is in the context of the practitioner-patient relationship that patient dignity is best promoted and preserved. If, as I claim, dignity is not tied to any capacity or set of attributes individual humans are presumed to possess then the principle of autonomy, so central to health care ethics, cannot adequately capture dignity. Autonomy and dignity are distinct concepts and how we go about respecting dignity can be quite different from the way we respect autonomy.