Published in The Foundations of Bioethics

Keywords: Bioethics – Edmund Pellegrino – Medical Humanities – Medical Education..

The author emphasizes the crucial role of the humanities in medical practice and medical education, based on the work of the great bioethicist Edmund Pellegrino. In the wake of Pellegrino the author believes medicine is the discipline best positioned to make the link between the sciences and the humanities, which from the end of the 17th century followed different paths. Some positive and negative consequences of the separation between the scientific and humanistic cultures are presented as well as proposals for a closer relationship between both cultures in healthcare.