Abstract
A common ethical code for everybody involved in health care is desirable, but there are important limitations to the role such a code could play. In order to understand these limitations the approach to ethics using principles and their application to medicine is discussed, and in particular the implications of their being prima facie. The expectation of what an ethical code can do changes depending on how ethical properties in general are understood. The difficulties encountered when ethical values are applied reactively to an objective world can be avoided by seeing them as a more integral part of our understanding of the world. It is concluded that an ethical code can establish important values and describe a common ethical context for health care but is of limited use in solving new and complex ethical problems.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Berwick D., Hiatt H., Janeway P., Smith R. An ethical code for everybody in health care. BMJ. 1997 Dec 20;315(7123):1633–1634. doi: 10.1136/bmj.315.7123.1633. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gillon R. Defending 'the four principles' approach to biomedical ethics. J Med Ethics. 1995 Dec;21(6):323–324. doi: 10.1136/jme.21.6.323. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Gillon R. Medical ethics: four principles plus attention to scope. BMJ. 1994 Jul 16;309(6948):184–188. doi: 10.1136/bmj.309.6948.184. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Holm S. Not just autonomy--the principles of American biomedical ethics. J Med Ethics. 1995 Dec;21(6):332–338. doi: 10.1136/jme.21.6.332. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Hurwitz B., Richardson R. Swearing to care: the resurgence in medical oaths. BMJ. 1997 Dec 20;315(7123):1671–1674. doi: 10.1136/bmj.315.7123.1671. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Jones A. H. Literature and medicine: narrative ethics. Lancet. 1997 Apr 26;349(9060):1243–1246. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(97)03395-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Loudon I. The Hippocratic oath. BMJ. 1994 Aug 6;309(6951):414–414. doi: 10.1136/bmj.309.6951.414a. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mills M., Davies H. T., Macrae W. A. Care of dying patients in hospital. BMJ. 1994 Sep 3;309(6954):583–586. doi: 10.1136/bmj.309.6954.583. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Robin Eugene D. The Hippocratic Oath updated. BMJ. 1994 Jul 9;309(6947):96–96. [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]