Methods
This paper does not present the results of an empirical study. Rather, it proceeds by way of philosophical argument, focusing on the central moral concepts guiding medical practice and medical education in attending to patients’ and their families’ illness experiences. After a brief discussion of the concepts of altruism and empathy, including how these have been treated variously as feelings, virtues, and assessable behaviours, the paper explores hospitality as a broad orientation or ethos.
The paper includes what could be called a philosophical case study. As Worthham observes, “philosophers often use hypothetical examples, or decontextualized versions of real examples.”11 In the present context, a decontextualized, hypothetical example might say: “For example, if a physician is confronted with a sick child’s distraught parents, how can this physician be attentive to the full scope of the parents’ distress?” Such a schematic example can be useful as a quick reminder to the reader of the type of situation in which parental distress manifests itself, or the type of situation in which attentiveness may be challenging. However, Worthham quite rightly points out that “examining a fuller empirical description of a real case can confront philosophers with dimensions that they had not considered.”11 In this paper, the thicker description of the context of the case, including the time of day, the age of the child, the physician’s state of mind, the physical aspects of the hospital, and so forth, provide greater insight into the various sources of disorientation and displacement that call out for a hospitable response. While the case is a composite in the sense that the details have been taken from several real-life situations, it is representative of a clinical scenario that regularly occurs.