Why should one care? An ethics of solidarity in the patient-physician relationship

The COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath have amplified deep divisions and distrust in our society, with many patients continuing to express skepticism about and refusing vaccines and other health care recommendations from physicians. These circumstances have compounded already high levels of moral distress and burnout and intensified physicians’ feelings of frustration, anger, and helplessness. Facing persistent distrust and distress, how can clinicians guard against disengagement and sustain their commitment to the patient’s good? In response to this challenge, we consider how the patient-physician relationship might be reframed as an ethics of solidarity. We do so at the level of a person’s ‘calculus of consent’—i.e., the rationality of why and how a physician cares for or helps a patient. We argue that an ethics of solidarity can help to recontextualize the patient-physician interaction within a richer perception of the parties’ shared social existence and better motivate a moral commitment to overcoming division and distrust.