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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

A quick guide to ethical theory in healthcare: solving ethical dilemmas in nutrition support situations.

Ethical dilemmas can be challenging for the nutrition support clinician who is accustomed to evidence-based practice. The emotional and personal nature of ethical decision making can present difficulties, and conflict can arise when people have different ethical perspectives. An understanding of ethical terms and ethical theories can be helpful in clarifying the source of this conflict. These may include prominent ethical theories such as moral relativism, utilitarianism, Kantian absolutism, Aristotle's virtue ethics and ethics of care, as well as the key ethical principles in healthcare (autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice). Adopting a step-by-step approach can simplify the process of resolving ethical problems.

Aged↗
PubMed1996

Ethical theories and principles.

Ethically sensitive situations and issues are not new in today's health care practice. They are increasing in frequency and complexity. For practitioners to face these challenges, they must not only understand their own values and beliefs, but understand the tools available to resolve these ethical dilemmas when they arise. Ethical theories and principles and decision-making models can assist the practitioner in obtaining resolution.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1998

The place of care in ethical theory.

The concept of care and a related ethical theory of care have emerged as increasingly important in biomedical ethics. This essay outlines a series of questions about the conceptualization of care and its place in ethical theory. First, it considers the possibility that care should be conceptualized as an alternative principle of right action; then as a virtue, a cluster of virtues, or as a synonym for virtue theory. The implications for various interpretations of the debate of the relation of care and justice are then explored, suggesting three possible meanings for that contrast. Next, the possibility that care theorists are taking up the debate over the relation between principles and cases is considered. Finally, it is suggested that care theorists may be pressing for consideration of an entirely new question in moral theory: the assessment of the normative appropriateness of relationships. Issues needing to be addressed in an ethic of relationships are suggested.

Beneficence↗
PubMed1996

Ethical theory, ethnography, and differences between doctors and nurses in approaches to patient care.

OBJECTIVES: To study empirically whether ethical theory (from the mainstream principles-based, virtue-based, and feminist schools) usefully describes the approaches doctors and nurses take in everyday patient care. DESIGN: Ethnographic methods: participant observation and interviews, the transcripts of which were analysed to identify themes in ethical approaches. SETTING: A British old-age psychiatry ward. PARTICIPANTS: The more than 20 doctors and nurses on the ward. RESULTS: Doctors and nurses on the ward differed in their conceptions of the principles of beneficence and respect for patient autonomy. Nurses shared with doctors a commitment to liberal and utilitarian conceptions of these principles, but also placed much greater weight on relationships and character virtues when expressing the same principles. Nurses also emphasised patient autonomy, while doctors were more likely to advocate beneficence, when the two principles conflicted. CONCLUSION: The study indicates that ethical theory can, contrary to the charges of certain critics, be relevant to everyday health care-if it (a) attends to social context and (b) is flexible enough to draw on various schools of theory.

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PubMed1991

Ethical theory and epidemiology.

The stream of ethics questions that arise in science seems endless. These questions concern how one determines responsibilities, rights, obligations, policies, and the like. But neither a "code of ethics" nor customary practice-standards may adequately justify a moral belief. An ethical theory is sometimes necessary to make progress on our moral problems. This form of theory consists of a diverse set of ways of developing moral concepts and giving philosophical reasons that explain, augment, and criticize the rules of social morality. Moral theory provides a basis for moral reasoning about problems; this reasoning is analogous to legal reasoning, where one appears before a court with a well reasoned case in defense of one's conduct. Moral theory is no panacea for our contemporary moral concerns, but it is valuable ally in the attempt to resolve them.

Epidemiology↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Ethical theories and clinical practice. One family physician's approach.

Many physicians find clinical ethics unhelpful in managing real-life patient care conflicts. In part, this is because different ethical theories often analyze situations in different ways. I review several clinical ethics methods that I have found useful in different patient care situations and discuss how this eclectic approach to ethical problems is consistent with primary care in general.

Bioethical Issues↗
PubMed2004

Does ethical theory have a future in bioethics?

Although there has long been a successful and stable marriage between philosophical ethical theory and bioethics, the marriage has become shaky as bioethics has become a more interdisciplinary and practical field. A practical price is paid for theoretical generality in philosophy. It is often unclear whether and, if so, how theory is to be brought to bear on dilemmatic problems, public policy, moral controversies, and moral conflict. Three clearly philosophical problems are used to see how philosophers are doing in handling practical problems: Cultural Relativity, and Moral Universality, Moral Justification, and Conceptual Analysis. In each case it is argued that philosophers need to develop theories and methods more closely attuned to practice. The work of philosophers such as Ruth Macklin, Norman Daniels, and Gerald Dworkin is examined. In the writings of each there is major methological gap between philosophical theory (or method) and practical conclusions. The future of philosophical ethics in interdisciplinary bioethics may turn on whether such gaps can be closed. If not, bioethics may justifiably conclude that philosophy is of little value.

Bioethics↗
PubMed1983

Ethical theories for promoting health through behavioral change.

The various philosophical orientations for changing people's unhealthy behaviors are examined. The ethical theories of natural law, utilitarianism, paternalism and distributive justice are reviewed in relation to changing people's behaviors. Finally, the health educators' role in behavior change is examined and it is recommended that health educators may need to limit the conditions in which they intervene into the lives of others.

Behavior Control↗
PubMed2000

Ethical theory and principles: do they have any relevance to problems arising in everyday practice?

This review of ethical theories with application to two difficult obstetric cases will allow the practicing obstetrician and gynecologist to use these theories to help resolve difficult ethical dilemmas. In the first case a pregnant human immunodeficiency virus-infected woman refuses to take triple preventive therapy, with potential fetal harm. In the second case a couple with a quintuplet multifetal pregnancy needs assistance to decide about selective termination to effect fetal reduction.

Caregivers↗
PubMed1998

Clinical ethics: theory or practice?

This article starts with a brief historical account of the ongoing debate about the status of clinical ethics: theory of practice. The author goes on to argue that clinical ethics is best understood as a practice. However, its practicality should not be measured by the extent to which clinical-ethical consultants manage to mediate or negotiate resolutions to ethical conflicts. Rather, clinical ethics is practical because it is characterized by a profound concern for the well-being of individual patients as well as the moral parameters of swift and urgent medical action in the face of limited supportive information.

Cultural Diversity↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Animals, science, and ethics -- Section I. Ethical theory and the moral status of animals.

Section I discusses the moral status of animals as conceived from several theoretical and ethical perspectives. Though any one perspective might not be finally adequate, the juxtaposition of several ethical positions widens and deepens our understanding of the moral status of animals and of the responsibilities this complex status engenders.

Animal Experimentation↗