ABSTRACT
In this chapter I explore how the term ‘proper’ medical treatment is used, and what work it does in legitimising or delegitimising a particular practice, a particular individual’s role in carrying it out, or the funding or provision of a practice. Drawing on debates in bioethical and the philosophy of medicine literature, I consider whether the question ‘what is “proper” medical treatment?’ can be answered by appealing to some idea of the appropriate norms governing medical practice. Some accounts suggest that there is an inherent morality of medicine based on the goals of medicine and concepts of medical professionalism, and this could be used to determine what is proper medical treatment. I examine these contentions, and advance an evolutionary theory of the internal morality of medicine based on the work of Franklin Miller and Howard Brody, and apply this theory to contested areas of practice. I argue that what constitutes proper medical treatment fluctuates over time, and is an interplay between the internal morality of medicine and the moralities of the social context in which medicine operates.
