SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “ethical principles and dilemmas”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2025

Policy paper of the Committee on Ethics and Task Force on Migration and Mental Health: Migration and mental health of migrants, refugees, asylum seekers - Ethical dilemmas and concerns.

BACKGROUND: International migration is a complex phenomenon of global and historical relevance. It includes voluntary, forced, and workforce migration, shaped by diverse determinants. Push factors comprise war, persecution, and political instability, while pull factors include stability, economic opportunities, education, and favorable living conditions. Forced migration is frequently associated with displacement and a disproportionate burden of mental health disorders, which are urgent yet difficult to address due to structural, cultural, and legal barriers. METHODS: Evidence demonstrates that restricted health care access exacerbates psychiatric disorders, while treatment delays contribute to poorer outcomes. Barriers include administrative limitations, linguistic and cultural differences, stigma, and resource shortages. This policy paper was developed by the Committee on Ethics and the Task Force on Migration and Mental Health of the European Psychiatric Association (EPA). Relevant literature was reviewed and combined with the professional expertise of committee members. The draft was subsequently evaluated by the Publication Committee and the EPA Board, and revised accordingly. RESULTS: Ethical principles in refugee care are insufficiently implemented in many European countries. Core principles of medical ethics - beneficence, respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, and justice - as well as the obligation to advance psychiatric standards and apply psychiatric expertise for societal benefit, are inconsistently upheld. CONCLUSIONS: The primary duty of physicians is to promote health and well-being through competent, timely, and compassionate care. The EPA therefore advocates coordinated strategies to mitigate the mental health consequences of war, displacement, and trauma, and to secure equitable access to psychiatric services for migrants and refugees.

Humans↗

PubMed1979

Paradoxical traps in therapeutics: some dilemmas in medical ethics.

The doctor-patient relationship is examined an emphasis on the comparison between professional and moral principles. Many therapeutic measures have opposite-directed alternative steps with an equal degree of justification, so that no logical preference is attainable and conflicts ensue. Thus patients come for relief and are ordered to endure further pain and discomfort; or weaker individuals exaggerate their complaints hypochomdriacally, and thus need a great deal of understanding, yet paradoxically they are prone to receive less support than stronger ones. Further conflicts arise between our devotion to human well-being and dignity, and our obligation to disrespect some of their rights for self-determination. Furthermore, various dutifully performed doctoring activities run counter to our own social needs and interests; last, but not least, human imperfection colours some of our decisions, putting a definite blemish on their value. In conclusion, physicians must bear the constant burden of paradoxically-opposed alternatives, and they confront pitfalls of worongdoing at every therapeutic step. Their only guidelines are intuition and professional dedication.

Attitude↗

PubMed1977

The responsibility to report occupational health risks.

The physician is ethically obligated to improve medical knowledge and to transmit those improvements to colleagues. Some occupational physicians are restricted from such professional communication by their employers, and some of these potential communications have major significance in other fields of medicine. For example, the failure to report the cardiovascular toxic manifestations of aliphatic nitrates in explosives and munitions workers involved a number of large U.S. corporations over a period of several decades. Most occupational physicians feel a strong obligation to their corporate employers which poses a dilemma shared by salaried physicians in academic and governmental careers. The solution to the occupational medical communication problem will be materially aided by the recent promulgation of a set of ethical principles for occupational physicians, and would be further advanced by the development of a review process for complaints and by the initiation of a public censure procedure for corporations which do not permit their physicians the opportunity to practice ethically.

American Medical Association↗