Abstract

KIE: Patricia M.L. Illingworth, in an article in the January 1988 issue of Bioethics, maintained that a friendship model of the physician patient relationship violates the autonomy of patients who do not want to be friends with their physicians and diminishes the autonomy of patients who seek such friendship based on "psychological oppression" stemming from internalization of feelings of inferiority. James contends in this reply that much of Illingworth's critique of the model was beside the point. He argues that trust between doctor and patient is a moral good in the therapeutic relationship and that this trust has enough similarities to trust between friends to make a model which develops these similarities well worth exploring.