ABSTRACT
Philosophers have long acknowledged the difficulties in delineating a clear distinction between facts and values. Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is thus the inevitable result of two assumptions: medicine should be value-free and medicine guided by EBM is value-free. The ubiquitous presence of values even in the most mundane elements of clinical medicine raises some doubts about whether there can be such a thing as value-free medicine. Recall that the fear of a value-laden clinical medicine rests primarily on medicine’s respect of patients’ autonomy. Given the availability of practical reasoning tools that people use outside of medicine to resolve value disagreements, it is unwarranted to give up on values entirely in clinical medicine. In addition to the philosophical reasons why many reject values in medicine, there are also non-philosophical or quasi-philosophical ones. In response to these legitimate concerns, people should keep in mind the fact that values do exist in medicine.
