ABSTRACT
This chapter uses the perspective of an ethics of care to examine the ways that power and authority function in medicine. Medical professionals have important sources of power and authority because of their specialized knowledge and skills. They also function as gatekeepers for access to medical treatment, and they deal with patients facing deeply difficult conditions. From the perspective of an ethics of care, the authority and power that professionals have is not necessarily problematic, so long as it is used for the benefit of the patients. But when the power is used to protect the status of the professional, or enrich the professional in inappropriate ways, then it becomes abusive. An ethics of care offers specific considerations for limiting the abuses to which power can be prone by diminishing distance between caregiver and patient, incorporating structures of feedback and accountability, and emphasizing the authority of the patient to determine the nature of their own care.
