| dc.description.abstract | Medical science and technology are ever-changing in modern days. However, changes in the medical system, medical scandals and emphasis of the protection of patient rights in Taiwan′s medical arena, build up layers of concretes separating the physician-patient relation, making both physician and patient unable to be sincere to each other. They sometimes become spy upon each other in self-protection. In this essay, I begin with discussing about emphasizing patient’s rights by the principle of respect for autonomy in modern times, which, in fact, shows little trust in their interaction. Onora O’Neill proposed “principled autonomy” with obligation as its base, in order to make the physician-patient have better interaction with positive and flexible space, so that the trust in physician-patient relationship can be appropriately combined with patient’s autonomy. However, O′Neill′s theory is not adequate. Since Taiwan is deeply immersed in Chinese culture, and the claim of Confucian concept that medicine is the art of humanity, it is appropriate that in this essay, I explore how the core idea of Confucianism, that is, humanity (ren), promoted as sincerity (cheng) in Zhongyong. With this Confucian conception of cheng, we offer a new interpretation of autonomy, and according to Sun Simiao′s (孫思邈) sayings about treat patients like your close relatives, physician can cultivate his or her moral virtues and establish family-like intra-personal feelings between physician-patient. Finally, I come to the conclusion that seeing sincerity (cheng) as the base of Confucian “ethical relational autonomy” we could have a way overcoming the distrust between patient and physician, and give a response to O′Neill′s inadequacy in the treatment of the trust problem. I try to show how this conception of cheng could be of help after the adoption of “Law of Patient’s Rights of Autonomy”, in bridging the gap of physician-patient relation so that the physician-patient relationship could be peaceful, warm, intimate and harmonious. | en_US |