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Strong patient advocacy and the fundamental ethical role of veterinarians

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Version 2 2024-06-13, 07:21
Version 1 2018-07-09, 11:17
journal contribution
posted on 2024-06-13, 07:21 authored by S Coghlan
This essay examines the fundamental role of veterinarians in companion animal practice by developing the idea of veterinarians as strong advocates for their nonhuman animal patients. While the practitioner-patient relationship has been explored extensively in medical ethics, the relation between practitioner and animal patient has received relatively less attention in the expanding but still young field of veterinary ethics. Over recent decades, social and professional ethical perspectives on human-animal relationships have undergone major change. Today, the essential role of veterinarians is not entirely clear. Furthermore, veterinarians routinely face pressure, often insidious, to refrain from pursuing their patients’ vital interests. In exploring the concept of strong patient advocacy, this essay investigates the increasingly common suggestion that veterinarians have ‘primary obligation’ and ‘first allegiance’ to their animal patients rather than to other parties, such as their clients or employers. The related concept of a fiduciary duty, which is sometimes encountered in medical ethics, is similarly explored as it applies to companion animal practice. The resultant idea of a strong patient advocate places companion animal veterinarians conceptually and ethically close to human health professionals, not least pediatricians.

History

Journal

Journal of agricultural and environmental ethics

Volume

31

Pagination

349-367

Location

Dordrecht, The Netherlands

Open access

  • Yes

ISSN

1187-7863

eISSN

1573-322X

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2018, The Authors

Issue

3

Publisher

Springer