The physician and the patient: The vulnerability paradigm in emmanuel levinas

Abstract

Scientific advances have been changing physician-patient relations, revealing the need for new ethical thinking and action, with emphasis on reestablishing the subjective elements of communication. To this end, this text focus on the thought of Emmanuel Levinas and bioethics, particularly its branch concerned with biomedicine, health care and the principle of vulnerability. This perspective proposes that bioethics surpasses the paradigm of autonomy, reaching towards the paradigm of vulnerability, focusing on the patient, whose fragility challenges and demands embracement.