Study On Physician-patient Relationship From The Chinese And Western Perspective

In the background of social reform，medical science is making rapid progress inChina. For the improvement of the medical technology and environment, people canaccept more advanced medical services. However, the relationship between doctors andpatients suffered an unprecedented challenge. The physician-patient contradiction andconflict has become an urgent issue related to people’s wellbeing in the contemporaryChina. Social transition is affected by traditional culture, and ethical conflict betweendoctors and patients is rooted in the different value of traditional Chinese and modernWestern. Contradiction of traditional medical paternalism and modern liberalism is oneof the causes of this conflict.Chinese Confucian ethical culture has been the dominant mainstream culture, whichhas a profound influence on the all aspects of the Chinese society. The traditionalmedicine is also deeply influenced by the Confucian culture. However，the westernmedicine separated from philosophy and became an independent science. In the east andwest, the bioethical study is in different field. The Chinese scholars focus on moral ofdoctors and the western scholars focus on the patient’s autonomy.In order to analyze the moral obligation of doctors and patients, the author cites thefamily spirits of Confucian ethics and liberalism of modern Western ethics. In conclusion,it is an extension of the Confucian filial piety that doctors care for patients, and it is alsoa way of moral cultivation for doctors to save lives. For western, they fight for patient’sautonomy and justice. However, care ethics provides a new perspective to improve thephysician-patient relationship. Doctors and patients are asked to care for each other, andresolve the issue through negotiation.