The Triangle Of Persuasion: The Role Of Ethical Decision Making In Medicine

The goal or purpose of medicine is to restore people, who have been compromised by illness or injury, back to a reasonable state of health. On a level regarding phonetics, health in English means “wholeness” which is derived from the Old English word hal meaning “whole”.(The Purpose of Medicine) In order to restore health and make patients whole again, physicians have to make decisions for the best method of care. Some of these decisions propose moral dilemmas. When a physician encounters a difficult decision, the physician is responsible for making an ethical decision; or, the physician is responsible for making the right decision. The study of right decision making, or ethics, is something that every health-care professional has to deal with at some point. Although certain specialties deal with these kinds of decisions more than others, everyone benefits from physicians having knowledge about ethics. Without physicians looking out for the best

Some of the influences on a physician’s decision making are defined in classical rhetoric as the triangle of persuasion or decision-making. The triangle of persuasion has three influences on decision-making: ethos, pathos and logos. Ethos involves trust and respect. This can be a doctor’s appeal to a document or a mentor. The Principles of Ethics could be an example of an ethos-centered approach to decision making. Opposite ethos, pathos is when the doctor is appealed to through their emotions like fear, love, or anger. A patient who has been with a certain physician their entire adult life and is now dying would pose a pathos problem. Finally, a doctor can be appealed to through logos, or numbers and logic. A study that shows the effectiveness of a certain type of treatment is an example of logos. Under these three types of persuasion, you have the factors that cause a doctor, or any person, to make a