Against Evidence Based Medicine: Leaving Room for Mystery, Wonder, and Faith in Medicine
Christopher Ostertag, MA, PhD Student / Teaching Assistant, Saint Louis University
The paradigm of evidence based medicine [EBM] facilitates a mechanistic and reductionistic understanding of the human person. In fact, EBM seems to require such a commitment given the emphasis on randomized controlled trials instead of on individual patients. The results of such a paradigm in medical science are difficult to assess. On the one hand, we are becoming more and more successful at treating increasingly complex diseases, but on the other hand, we seem to have lost sight of what truly matters in medicine. As we continue to understand the human body at a deeper level, we lose sight of the whole person.
To remedy this tendency, we need a new paradigm in medicine. EBM has its share of practical concerns that are often addressed in the literature, but the deeper concern stems from the necessitation to mechanize and reduce the human person to our biological and chemical parts. In order to refocus medicine on the whole person, we need to commit to a richer ontology that allows for mystery, wonder, and faith. I think that St. Thomas Aquinas has already supplied us with this rich, metaphysical worldview.
While this project is massive in scope, in this paper I will focus on the practical appeal of essence and how acknowledging the existence of essence in medicine will facilitate a better appreciation for the whole person. Furthermore, a commitment to essence entails a commitment to mystery, wonder, and faith, all of which should be foundational in medicine. While there are many arguments for and against essences in philosophy, I hope to show that a commitment to essence in medicine requires a holistic understanding of the human person. As a paradigm in medicine, the acknowledgement of essence will both support a deeper understanding of the human body and leave room for mystery, wonder, and faith.
The paradigm of evidence based medicine [EBM] facilitates a mechanistic and reductionistic understanding of the human person. In fact, EBM seems to require such a commitment given the emphasis on randomized controlled trials instead of on individual patients. The results of such a paradigm in medical science are difficult to assess. On the one hand, we are becoming more and more successful at treating increasingly complex diseases, but on the other hand, we seem to have lost sight of what truly matters in medicine. As we continue to understand the human body at a deeper level, we lose sight of the whole person.
To remedy this tendency, we need a new paradigm in medicine. EBM has its share of practical concerns that are often addressed in the literature, but the deeper concern stems from the necessitation to mechanize and reduce the human person to our biological and chemical parts. In order to refocus medicine on the whole person, we need to commit to a richer ontology that allows for mystery, wonder, and faith. I think that St. Thomas Aquinas has already supplied us with this rich, metaphysical worldview.
While this project is massive in scope, in this paper I will focus on the practical appeal of essence and how acknowledging the existence of essence in medicine will facilitate a better appreciation for the whole person. Furthermore, a commitment to essence entails a commitment to mystery, wonder, and faith, all of which should be foundational in medicine. While there are many arguments for and against essences in philosophy, I hope to show that a commitment to essence in medicine requires a holistic understanding of the human person. As a paradigm in medicine, the acknowledgement of essence will both support a deeper understanding of the human body and leave room for mystery, wonder, and faith.