ABSTRACT
According to Sathya Sai Baba, an Indian philosopher, educationist and
philanthropist, human values have their derivative from the concept of
divinity. In other words, human values are the characteristics of God in human
condition. He postulated the five human values, viz: Love, Truth, Right
Action, Peace, Non-Violence. Within each value, there is a
range of sub-values and they are expressed in medical ethics values. Medical
ethics, on the other hand, is a system of moral principles that apply values to
the practice of clinical medicine and in scientific research. These values
include the respect for autonomy (self-determination), non-maleficence
(non-violence), beneficence (charity), justice (equity). Sai Baba points out
the subtle difference between human values and ethics, namely, that ethics is a
system conceived by humans without underpinning the role that divinity plays.
Taken together with their sub-values, these five basic principles encompass a
full vision of human potential, namely, the fulfillment of the quest of the
intellect for truth, the channeling of the will into satisfying
expression through right conduct, the resolution of the conflicts of
human emotions and interactions in the achievement of inner and outer peace,
the expansion of the heart in the flow of love and the realization of
perfect sympathy of all creation through non-violence. Human values in medicine, apart from being the moral
benchmark for relationship between physician and patient, necessitate ensuring
that clinical and management practices are consistent with widely accepted
ethics standards, norms, and expectations. In recent years, scientism as a goal
has frequently led to the neglect of the humanism inherent in medical practice
that the science
of medicine has assumed precedence over the art of medicine. The pedagogy of Sai Baba’s value-based
healthcare helps to elicit the human values inherent in every human being.