An Heideggerian critique of evidence-based medicine

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Published: Jul 30, 2013
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5750/ijpcm.v3i1.374
Keywords:
Heidegger evidence-based medicine Being interpretation hermeneutic-phenomenology therapeutic relationships

Main Article Content

Lynne Bowyer
University of Otago
Brian Walsh

Abstract

Evidence-based medicine is thought to be the gold-standard of biomedical practice, providing a universal approach to treating illness. However, this paper argues that it is an approach that distorts both the nature of health and illness and the healing relationship between the clinician and her patient. Engaging with the work of Martin Heidegger we argue that the framework of EBM has arisen out of an instrumental or calculative thinking that conceals other ways of understanding a situation. By imposing a certain framework of interpretation, instrumental thinking blocks off access to any genuine understanding, distorting our engagement with the particularity of health and illness.  

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 3 No. 1 (2013)
Section
Regular Articles
Author Biography

Lynne Bowyer, University of Otago

Research Assistant, Bioethics Centre

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