{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,31]],"date-time":"2026-01-31T17:23:17Z","timestamp":1769880197370,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":38,"publisher":"Wiley","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,4,18]],"date-time":"2019-04-18T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1555545600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":48,"URL":"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/termsAndConditions#vor"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["onlinelibrary.wiley.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Hastings Center Report"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,3]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p><jats:italic>In this article, our analysis of empathy in the clinical context hinges on the complexities of patients who are acutely suffering. Using a case concerning a heart transplant patient with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Alex, and his nurse, Joe, we investigate how empathy\u2019s phenomenological nebulousness can generate doubts about its virtue. Even when asking, \u201cHow are you, Alex?\u201d Joe hates the question; it seems empty, silly. Cases like this show both that the enactment of empathy is sometimes challenging and that it can be reasonable to wonder if empathy is a virtue at all. Perhaps Alex\u2019s suffering is simply too massive: Joe cannot possibly know how he feels, so why try? Perhaps empathy would only cause Joe to suffer along with Alex. Not only is empathy difficult to produce in the context of Alex\u2019s suffering; it may not even be possible; and if we simply cannot muster empathy, what is the point of morally demanding it?<\/jats:italic><\/jats:p><jats:p><jats:italic>In response, we distinguish different kinds of empathic engagements from one another and offer separate counsel. We argue that it is important to understand empathy as something that must be honed across varied contexts before it can be called a virtue. Conceptualizing and operationalizing empathy in this way helps to ground its possibility and virtue even in the most challenging and complex clinical encounters.<\/jats:italic><\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1002\/hast.989","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,4,18]],"date-time":"2019-04-18T14:40:24Z","timestamp":1555598424000},"page":"17-25","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Empathetic Practice: <i>The Struggle and Virtue of Empathizing with a Patient's Suffering<\/i>"],"prefix":"10.1002","volume":"49","author":[{"given":"Georgina","family":"Campelia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tyler","family":"Tate","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"311","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,4,18]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_8_2_1","volume-title":"A Treatise of Human Nature","author":"Hume D.","year":"2000"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_3_1","unstructured":"Ibid."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_4_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3399\/bjgp13X660814"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_5_1","first-page":"245","volume-title":"Empathy: From Bench to Bedside","author":"Boodman S. G.","year":"2015"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_6_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1097\/00001888-200210001-00019"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_7_1","volume-title":"The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society","author":"Waal F. de","year":"2009"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_8_1","unstructured":"The Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy for instance asks medical practitioners to rate the relevance of emotions in the clinical setting in broader regards such as \u201cI believe that emotion has no place in the treatment of medical illness\u201d (Hojat \u201cThe Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy \u201d S59)."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_9_1","volume-title":"Empathic Accuracy","author":"Ickes W.","year":"1997"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_10_1","volume-title":"Rhetorical Spaces: Essays on Gendered Locations","author":"Code See L.","year":"1995"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_11_1","unstructured":"Code Rhetorical Spaces 141."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_12_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/pbm.0.0036"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_13_1","first-page":"311","volume-title":"Empathic Accuracy","author":"Hodges S. D.","year":"1997"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_14_1","first-page":"302","volume-title":"Empathic Accuracy","author":"Ickes W.","year":"2014"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_15_1","first-page":"169","volume-title":"Nebraska Symposium on Motivation","author":"Hoffman M. L.","year":"1977"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_16_1","volume-title":"In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development","author":"Gilligan C.","year":"1982"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_17_1","volume-title":"Empathy: From Bench to Bedside","author":"Lewis K. L.","year":"2012"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_18_1","unstructured":"Gleichgerrcht and Decety \u201cThe Costs of Empathy among Health Professionals.\u201d"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_19_1","unstructured":"SeeGoldie \u201cAnti-Empathy.\u201d"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_20_1","first-page":"277","volume-title":"Empathy: Philosophical and Psychological Perspectives","author":"Battaly H. D.","year":"2014"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_21_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1089\/jpm.2014.0115"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_22_1","volume-title":"Nicomachean Ethics","author":"Broadie S.","year":"2002"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_23_1","first-page":"65","volume-title":"Beyond Domination: New Perspectives on Women and Philosophy","author":"Whitbeck C.","year":"1989"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_24_1","unstructured":"See Ickes Empathic Accuracy;D.Schwan \u201cShould Physicians Be Empathetic? Rethinking Clinical Empathy \u201dTheoretical Medicine and Bioethics(2018):1\u201314."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_25_1","first-page":"187","volume-title":"After Virtue","author":"MacIntyre A.","year":"2008"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_26_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/pbm.2019.0005"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_27_1","volume-title":"Rethinking Democracy: Freedom and Social Cooperation in Politics, Economy, and Society","author":"Gould C.","year":"1998"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_28_1","unstructured":"Schwan \u201cShould Physicians Be Empathetic? \u201d 8."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_29_1","unstructured":"Ibid. 9."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_30_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1086\/292054"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_31_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1080\/05568640609485185"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_32_1","volume-title":"To Relieve the Human Condition","author":"McKenny G. P.","year":"1997"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_33_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9780203927076"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_34_1","unstructured":"For a deeper examination of how empathic and holistic care can benefit patients and alleviate their suffering see Tate and Pearlman \u201cWhat We Mean When We Talk about Suffering \u201d 106\u20138."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_35_1","unstructured":"Nicomachean Ethics 1098a17\u201320."},{"key":"e_1_2_8_36_1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0061526"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_37_1","unstructured":"Schwan \u201cShould Physicians Be Empathetic?\u201d"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_38_1","volume-title":"Suffering Presence: Theological Reflections on Medicine, the Mentally Handicapped, and the Church","author":"Hauerwas S.","year":"1986"},{"key":"e_1_2_8_39_1","unstructured":"Sobel \u201cBeyond Empathy \u201d 478."}],"container-title":["Hastings Center Report"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/api.wiley.com\/onlinelibrary\/tdm\/v1\/articles\/10.1002%2Fhast.989","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1002\/hast.989","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full-xml\/10.1002\/hast.989","content-type":"application\/xml","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1002\/hast.989","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,27]],"date-time":"2023-08-27T07:26:18Z","timestamp":1693121178000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/hast.989"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,3]]},"references-count":38,"journal-issue":{"issue":"2","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,3]]}},"alternative-id":["10.1002\/hast.989"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1002\/hast.989","archive":["Portico"],"relation":{},"ISSN":["0093-0334","1552-146X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0093-0334","type":"print"},{"value":"1552-146X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,3]]},"assertion":[{"value":"2019-04-18","order":2,"name":"published","label":"Published","group":{"name":"publication_history","label":"Publication History"}}]}}