Meeting the Patient’s Interest in Veterinary Clinics. Ethical Dimensions of the 21st Century Animal Patient

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to introduce the concept of the Banimal patient^to academic debates on animal ethics, veterinary ethics and medical ethics. This move reflects the prioritization of the animal patient in the veterinary profession's own current ethical self-conception. Our paper contributes to the state of research by analysing the conceptual prerequisites for the constitution and understanding of animals as patients through the lens of two concepts fundamental to the medical field: health and disease. The first section describes, how these concepts are inextricably entangled with the animal's becoming a patient. The understanding of health and disease, we determine, has a great impact on the actual treatment of animals as patients. We show that a naturalistic perspective on health and disease still prevails in the veterinary field. By contrast, we use a historical study to demonstrate how a socio-historical perspective on animal diseases enriches our understanding of veterinary practice and its ethical dimensions. This perspective will prove not only able to deal with the wide variety of veterinary patients, but also to release underlying normative processes to ethical reflection and research. We elaborate on that assertion by spelling out the constructive dimension between the veterinary gaze and the objects of its experience. The final section brings veterinary medicine's ethical relationship to the animal patient into the picture. The discipline is guided by an ethical principle of advocacy, defined as the responsibility to recognise and defend the animal patient's interest in health. Our principle conclusion is that ethical philosophical thinking on interactions between specific notions of health and disease and animal patients makes a substantial contribution to surmounting this moral challenge. As 'health' and 'disease' determine the options for the articulation of an animal patient's interest, investigation into the ever-changing and particular conceptualisations of these notions fosters its recognition. We conclude with a prospect resulting from those theoretical insights: meeting the animal patient's interest Food ethics (2018)

“Patients’ interests first, but … ”–Austrian Veterinarians’ Attitudes to Moral Challenges in Modern Small Animal Practice

“…To act in the best interests of an animal can be understood as a matter of promoting its health and improving its quality of life [2]. In the literature proper consideration of these patient-centered factors is often presented as fundamental [3,4,5], and some authors make a normative claim in favor of a strong patient advocacy in companion animal medicine [6,7,8,9,10]. For example, the philosopher Simon Coghlan points out that the significant status of companion animals and the role-based duties of veterinarians to their patients combine to justify the prioritization of the best interest principle during patient care.…”

Legal and Ethical Aspects of ‘Best Interests’ Decision-Making for Medical Treatment of Companion Animals in the UK

“…Assigning a right to health to the animal through a 'best interests' calculation could perhaps move the argument further along the road for animal rights. Indeed, the veterinary profession's "self-imposed ethical ideal of advocating and defending its patients' interests in health" [12] already gives the animal patient status as a subject.…”

“…By limiting the comparison to companion animals, we focus on animals that are frequently regarded as family members [11], with decisions made for them accordingly. Unlike decision-making for farm animals or laboratory animals, where interventions are mainly for the benefit of (human) individuals or society, the authors argue that, ideally, decision-making in companion animals should be made on the basis of the 'best interests' of the individual animal [12]. For children, decisions are made by an adult with parental responsibility.…”

Drawing the line in clinical treatment of companion animals: recommendations from an ethics working party

“…The aims of medical and veterinary companion animal practice are increasingly comparable, 10 although recent literature also identifies differences. 7 10 12 Companion animal practice can be considered a place where the ‘best interest of the patient’ is paramount and does not necessarily take into account the interests of the client or other parties. 3 4 10 13 14 However, this patient-centred focus is often in the interest of the client where the human–animal bond is as strong as that with a human family member.…”