Ethical Issues
CONTENTS Click on the up arrow to return here
1) INTRODUCTION
2) DEFINITIONS
3) ETHICAL THEORY
4) ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
5) NEGLIGENCE
6) CONSENT IN COMPETENT ADULTS
7) CONSENT IN CHILDREN
8) CONSENT IN INCOMPETENT ADULTS
9) CONSENT CONCERNING UNUSUAL IDEAS
10) ADVANCE DIRECTIVES
11) CONFIDENTIALITY
12) CONFIDENTIALITY AUDIT
13) EUTHANASIA
14) ABORTION
15) BIOTECHNOLOGY
16) SUGGESTED READING
ONE – INTRODUCTION (Registrar)
The importance of Ethical thinking in General Practice is becoming more and more apparent. It should not be thought that Ethics merely relates to the “Life and Death” issues in our Professional life – Abortion, Contraception, Euthanasia and the like. Ethical issues affect some part of almost every consultation, even if the ethical issue is something more mundane like obtaining adequate consent for an examination or respecting a patient’s dignity. Indeed, it could be argued that the Consultation skills that we foster so assiduously are actually Ethical skills – and that we need to know the patient’s “Ideas, Concerns and Expectations” in order to respect his Autonomy as well as in order to improve the outcome of the Consultation. In the 1998/99 academic year, I was appointed the deanery’s Medical Ethics fellow with a bursary from the MDU. I developed an approach to the teaching of GP ethics based on two half day sessions, which I presented in each VTS scheme in the deanery. The first session involved a consideration of Ethical theory. However, the more useful session was the second one where each Registrar presented an “Ethical case history” to the Registrar Group. The Case History summarised an Ethical problem that had concerned the Registrar, and in each case was followed by discussion. As promised I now present background to some of these Ethical case histories, some of which was developed
1) INTRODUCTION
2) DEFINITIONS
3) ETHICAL THEORY
4) ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
5) NEGLIGENCE
6) CONSENT IN COMPETENT ADULTS
7) CONSENT IN CHILDREN
8) CONSENT IN INCOMPETENT ADULTS
9) CONSENT CONCERNING UNUSUAL IDEAS
10) ADVANCE DIRECTIVES
11) CONFIDENTIALITY
12) CONFIDENTIALITY AUDIT
13) EUTHANASIA
14) ABORTION
15) BIOTECHNOLOGY
16) SUGGESTED READING
ONE – INTRODUCTION (Registrar)
The importance of Ethical thinking in General Practice is becoming more and more apparent. It should not be thought that Ethics merely relates to the “Life and Death” issues in our Professional life – Abortion, Contraception, Euthanasia and the like. Ethical issues affect some part of almost every consultation, even if the ethical issue is something more mundane like obtaining adequate consent for an examination or respecting a patient’s dignity. Indeed, it could be argued that the Consultation skills that we foster so assiduously are actually Ethical skills – and that we need to know the patient’s “Ideas, Concerns and Expectations” in order to respect his Autonomy as well as in order to improve the outcome of the Consultation. In the 1998/99 academic year, I was appointed the deanery’s Medical Ethics fellow with a bursary from the MDU. I developed an approach to the teaching of GP ethics based on two half day sessions, which I presented in each VTS scheme in the deanery. The first session involved a consideration of Ethical theory. However, the more useful session was the second one where each Registrar presented an “Ethical case history” to the Registrar Group. The Case History summarised an Ethical problem that had concerned the Registrar, and in each case was followed by discussion. As promised I now present background to some of these Ethical case histories, some of which was developed