Moral Distress: Conscious and Unconscious Feelings.

In analyzing moral distress, perhaps greater attention should be given to the possible implicit sources of feelings of distress, as well as explicit sources.

Economism and the commercialization of health care.

Those concerned over the excessive commercialization of health care, to the detriment of both professional and patient-centered values, commonly propose remedies that assume that meaningful change can occur largely within the health care sector. I argue instead that a major shift in the public culture and political discourse of the U.S.

The physician as priest, revisited.

Despite much resistance from the medical profession, the notion persists in our culture that the physician plays a priestly role. Medical resistance must be taken seriously. It stems from legitimate concerns that the priestly role implies an unwelcome broadening of medical responsibilities, expectations of moral expertise, and being on the receiving end of people's most intense existential hopes.