"One main purpose of medical ethics is to analyze the practice of clinical medicine and related scientific research."
The study of moral and ethical issues related to medicine and healthcare.
Autonomy: The principle that patients have the right to make their own decisions about their medical care.
Beneficence: The principle stating that medical professionals should always act in the best interest of the patient.
Non-maleficence: The principle stating that medical professionals should avoid causing harm to their patients.
Justice: The principle stating that medical resources should be distributed fairly and that patients should be treated equally.
Informed consent: The process of obtaining a patient's permission to perform a medical procedure after fully informing them of the risks and benefits involved.
Confidentiality: The duty of medical professionals to keep a patient's medical information private and secure.
End of life care: The ethical considerations surrounding end-of-life decisions and care, such as euthanasia and withdrawing treatment.
Cultural competence: The ability of medical professionals to understand and respond to the cultural beliefs and customs of their patients.
Professionalism: The ethical standards and behaviors expected of medical professionals, including honesty and a commitment to lifelong learning.
Conflict of interest: The ethical challenges that arise when medical professionals have competing interests, such as financial gain, that may affect their decision-making or treatment options for patients.
Abortion ethics: The ethical considerations surrounding the termination of pregnancy and reproductive rights of a woman.
Dilemmas in surrogate decision-making: The ethical challenges surrounding decisions regarding treatment and care when a patient is unable to make their own decisions and a surrogate decision-maker is required.
Standard of Care: The ethics and legal obligations of medical professionals relating to meeting the standard of care for patients.
Patient Rights: The rights of the patient, including informed consent, access to quality healthcare, the right to privacy, and to refuse healthcare.
Organ Transplant Ethics: The ethical consideration surrounding organ donation, allocation, and transplantation procedures.
Bioethics: This type of medical ethics focuses on ethical issues arising from healthcare and biomedical research.
Clinical ethics: This encompasses ethical dilemmas in patient care, including informed consent, confidentiality, end-of-life care, and access to care.
Public health ethics: This type of ethics deals with ethical issues that affect the broader community, including concerns about population health, disease prevention, and health policy.
Organizational ethics: This perspective emphasizes the ethical challenges facing healthcare organizations and medical institutions, such as conflicts of interest and scarce resources.
Narrative ethics: In this approach, healthcare professionals use storytelling to illustrate ethical issues and engage patients in the decision-making process.
Feminist ethics: This approach involves recognizing and addressing gender-based inequalities in healthcare, including disparities in access to care and treatment.
Virtue ethics: This type of ethics focuses on developing the moral character of healthcare professionals and their commitment to virtuous behavior.
Cultural ethics: Cultural ethics explore how different cultural backgrounds influence healthcare delivery and decision-making.
Religious ethics: This approach examines the role of religion in shaping medical ethics, including end-of-life care and reproductive rights.
Professional ethics: This type of ethics focuses on the conduct and behavior expected of healthcare professionals in fulfilling their roles, including their interactions with patients, peers, and the broader community.
"These values include the respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice."
"It is important to note that these four values are not ranked in order of importance or relevance."
"Such tenets may allow doctors, care providers, and families to create a treatment plan and work towards the same common goal."
"A conflict may arise leading to the need for hierarchy in an ethical system, such that some moral elements overrule others with the purpose of applying the best moral judgment to a difficult medical situation."
"The Hippocratic Oath, The Declaration of Helsinki, and The Nuremberg Code are well-known and respected documents contributing to medical ethics."
"Roe v. Wade in 1973 marked an important development in medical ethics."
"The development of hemodialysis in the 1960s was an important milestone in the history of medical ethics."
"New techniques for gene editing aiming at treating, preventing and curing diseases raise important moral questions about their applications in medicine and treatments as well as societal impacts on future generations."
"These techniques remain controversial due to their association with eugenics."
"The focus remains on fair, balanced, and moral thinking across all cultural and religious backgrounds around the world."
"The field of medical ethics encompasses both practical application in clinical settings and scholarly work in philosophy, history, and sociology."
"Medical ethics encompasses beneficence, autonomy, and justice as they relate to conflicts such as euthanasia, patient confidentiality, informed consent, and conflicts of interest in healthcare."
"Different cultures implement ethical values differently, sometimes placing more emphasis on family values and downplaying the importance of autonomy."
"This leads to an increasing need for culturally sensitive physicians and ethical committees in hospitals and other healthcare settings."
"Medical ethics is particularly relevant in decisions regarding involuntary treatment and involuntary commitment."
"The Hippocratic Oath discusses basic principles for medical professionals and dates back to the fifth century BCE."
"The field of medical ethics encompasses practical application in clinical settings as well as scholarly work in philosophy."
"New techniques for gene editing raise important moral questions about their applications in medicine and treatments as well as societal impacts on future generations."
"Ethical committees play a role in addressing culturally sensitive issues and ethical conflicts in hospitals and other healthcare settings."