Beyond justice.

Bioethicists have generally looked after the contractual and fiduciary obligations of health care professionals to patients by their adherence to and insistence on the principles of ethical action--autonomy, nonmaleficence, beneficence, and justice. But these principles, while necessary, only serve the best interests of people already recognized as patients. If we truly want to help vulnerable populations--those who fall outside the margin--then we need to go beyond justice to embrace the theological principles of mercy and grace; that is, we need to rely more completely on the way medicine was before secularization and commercialism. Competency and compassion intertwine in western medicine.