The Doctor-Patient Relationship: Grounding a Personalist Medical Ethics

Does medicine have an intrinsic moral orientation aimed at health and healing? Or is a physician merely a technician or “provider” of various high-tech goods and services? This talk will explore these foundational questions by examining the existential state of illness and its attendant vulnerability, the nature of the doctor-patient relationship, and the pledge to heal contained in the physician’s professed oath.

Dr. Kheriaty graduated from the University of Notre Dame in philosophy and pre-medical sciences, earned his MD degree from Georgetown University, and completed residency training in psychiatry at the University of California Irvine. For many years he was Professor of Psychiatry at UCI School of Medicine and Director of the Medical Ethics Program at UCI Health, where he chaired the ethics committee. He also chaired the ethics committee at the California Department of State Hospitals for several years. Dr. Kheriaty has authored books and articles for professional and lay audiences on bioethics, public health, political theory, social science, psychiatry, philosophy, religion, and culture. His work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Newsweek, The Federalist, Compact, The New Atlantis, Public Discourse, City Journal, and First Things. He has conducted print, radio, and television interviews on bioethics topics with The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, NPR, EWTN, and Epoch TV.

On matters of public policy and healthcare, he has addressed the California Medical Association and has testified before the California Senate Health Committee and the United States Senate. Dr. Kheriaty has consulted on Covid related ethical issues during the pandemic for the University of California Office of the President, the County of Orange Healthcare Agency, and the California Department of Public Health.