Abstract

There will always be debates in medical ethics about whether any particular value can be considered foundational, but there are reasons for thinking that ‘trust’ is the ground upon which many other important values is built. Sisela Bok remarks: > If there is no confidence in the truthfulness of others, is there any way to assess their fairness, their intentions to help or to harm? How, then, can they be trusted? Whatever matters to human beings, trust is the atmosphere in which it thrives.1 p31 The idea that trust in what others tell us is the bedrock on which human relationships and other values are built seems plausible, but how trust is created, nurtured and sustained is perhaps the challenge for medical ethics. Annette Baier noted that trust occurs within the context of a relationship of some sort, be that with another person or an institution. > “Trust me!” is for most of us an invitation which we cannot accept at will—either we do already trust the one who says …