Human Flourishing & Christian Hippocratism: A Philosophical & Theological Approach to Healthcare & the Good of the Patient

Bioethics has long been concerned with human flourishing. With advances in healthcare, science, and technology, different accounts of flourishing have been proposed. Furthermore, societal changes and organizational statements have led to the overemphasis of health in human flourishing and patient autonomy, which have resulted in consumeristic medicine. Some have noted that health may be the ultimate good of the patient, while this manuscript argues that there is a need for a return to a philosophy of healthcare grounded in a teleology of humanity seen in philosophical and religious accounts of human flourishing and health. This manuscript discusses the concepts of human flourishing and health to propose a return to a religious philosophy of healthcare found in Christian Hippocratism. It then briefly applies this framework to abortion and physician-assisted suicide to inform its readers of the implications for those who adhere to particular philosophical or Christian theological convictions.