What role should emotions and empathy play in ethical decision making?
by Eric Racine, Ph.D., Director, Neuroethics Research Unit Institut de recherches cliniques de Montréal (IRCM) We are beginning to understand enough about the brain and behavior to realize – with a little chagrin – that we have out-lived the time when it is fashionable to put an overriding emphasis on impersonalized basic research. I say “chagrin” because it would seem that we have been so bent on pure research as to neglect research on such basic human problems as those concerning the brain, empathy and medical education. (Paul MacLean, 1967) Empathy comes from the Greek empatheia (en – “in” + pathos “feeling”) and can be defined as the ability to identify and comprehend the emotion of another person. Empathy is often characterized as “putting oneself into another’s shoes.” What if it was your own mother or father, patients often ask. In contrast, sympathy comes from the Greek sumpatheia, (syn – “with” + pathos “feeling”) and involves sharing the feelings of the patient. For empathy T
