1-4.
ETHICS DOES NOT PROVIDE BLACK AND WHITE ANSWERS
The ideals of behavior, embodied in the ethical standard, sometimes place us in
conflict with our own personal standards (values, beliefs, attitudes) and the various
sources for morality. The answers to ethical questions, such as whether or not patients
and health care providers should be screened for the HIV, are not always clear-cut; they
often come in shades of gray. Some say that the answers depend on the specific
situation, that living up to ethical standards is a question of degree. Others say that
some ethical principles are unconditional, that is, they must be adhered to in all cases,
without exception. These kinds of questions and answers, and the debate that they
generate, touch on the realm of ethics, the philosophic study of what is right and wrong.
Ethics attempts to bring to a conscious level the underlying ideals of behavior. Ethics
seeks to articulate a clear, consistent, and relevant account of moral conduct, a
reasoned account of what is right and wrong. It attempts to disentangle the conflicting
web created by the differing sources of morality, and the opinions they generate.
ethics: a disciplined study of morality (what is right and wrong). It attempts
to sort out the confusion created by conflicting sources of morality.
morality: conformity to the rules of right conduct.
Section II: HOW ETHICS AFFECTS HEALTH CARE DECISIONS
1-5.
TYPES OF ETHICS
a. Clinical and Biomedical Ethics. Ethical thinking can be applied to any
aspect of life: journalism, politics, health care, the environment, and so forth. When ethics
is applied to direct patient care, it is referred to as clinical ethics. When more than direct
patient care is implied, the discipline is referred to as biomedical ethics. Broader in
scope than clinical ethics, biomedical ethics includes not only health care, but also
medical research and biogenetics, and the though ethical dilemmas posed by recent
technological advances in those areas.
clinical ethics: a type of ethics that involves identification, analysis,
and resolution of moral problems encountered at the bedside.
biomedical ethics: a philosophical study of what is right and wrong in
modern biological sciences, medicine, health care and medical research.
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