A Dental Ethics Blog
Hippocratic Oath Some version of the Hippocratic Oath is taken by dental students at the start of dental school. The original version made a promise to Apollo never to ever do surgery, so dental schools have adopted updated versions. However, there is no standardized oath. It would be overwhelming to discuss each version individually in…
Defining health is a metaphysical concern because health is an abstract idea or concept. We explore metaphysical questions such as what is health by using the dialectical method. This post is an initial attempt at defining oral health using the dialectical method. We will first explore some common sense conceptions of health to better our…
First Principles Many people think metaphysics is what is transcendental, what is “beyond the physical” or “outside spacetime.” Laypeople get this impression from pseudo-intellectual hippies. Academics get this impression from an etymological misunderstanding of “meta” and “physics.” Metaphysics, however, is the study of first principles: a set of propositions that explain the nature of reality as…
The Golden Rule or empathy principle is the most familiar ethical imperative one comes across in everyday life. The rule states that one must treat others as oneself would want to be treated in a similar situation. The rule is easy to understand but it is not recommended to be used in a healthcare setting. This…