BMJ  2004;329:126 (17 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7458.126

Editorial

Getting ethics into practice

Clinicians need to be able to analyse and justify their day to day value judgments

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In their day to day practice, clinicians make not only scientific judgments about the effectiveness of one intervention in comparison with another but also value judgments. Sometimes such judgments are explicit—for example, when a doctor reflects on his or her own moral views about the permissibility of abortion. In most cases, however, value judgments in medical practice are implicit in what seem, at first glance, to be "clinical" decisions.

Thus doctors may not think of themselves as making value judgments when, for example, considering what would be in an incompetent patient's best interests, weighing up whether harm to a third party is serious enough to justify a breach of patient confidentiality, or assessing quality of life in intensive care. Yet these decisions do indeed entail the making of value judgments, as do others—such as those in priority settings. Good medical practice requires that such value judgments are properly analysed and . . . [Full text of this article]

michael.parker@ethox.ox.ac.uk Ethox Centre, Institute of Health Sciences, Oxford University, Oxford OX3 7LF

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Articles

Getting ethics into practice: Tuskegee was bad enough

Hilary Curtis
BMJ 2004 329: 513. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Getting ethics into practice: Comparing Alder Hey with Tuskegee is not helpful

Peter J Waugh
BMJ 2004 329: 513. [Extract] [Full Text]

Getting ethics into practice: Ethics entails much common sense

Kayvan Shokrollahi
BMJ 2004 329: 513. [Extract] [Full Text]

Genetic information: a joint account?

Michael Parker and Anneke M Lucassen
BMJ 2004 329: 165-167. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Frith, L. (2009). Use or ornament? Clinical ethics committees in infertility units: a qualitative study. Clin Ethics 4: 91-97 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Moodley, K. (2007). Teaching medical ethics to undergraduate students in post-apartheid South Africa, 2003 2006. J. Med. Ethics 33: 673-677 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Sokol, D. K (2005). Meeting the ethical needs of doctors. BMJ 330: 741-742 [Full text]  
• Curtis, H. (2004). Getting ethics into practice: Tuskegee was bad enough. BMJ 329: 513-513 [Full text]  
• Waugh, P. J (2004). Getting ethics into practice: Comparing Alder Hey with Tuskegee is not helpful. BMJ 329: 513-513 [Full text]  
• Shokrollahi, K. (2004). Getting ethics into practice: Ethics entails much common sense. BMJ 329: 513-513 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

Ethics or common sense?

Kayvan Shokrollahi
bmj.com, 16 Jul 2004 [Full text]

Ethics into practice

Peter J Waugh
bmj.com, 16 Jul 2004 [Full text]

Re: Ethics or common sense?

sheila otto
bmj.com, 16 Jul 2004 [Full text]

Tuskegee was bad enough

Hilary Curtis
bmj.com, 18 Jul 2004 [Full text]

Correction to editorial

Michael J Parker
bmj.com, 19 Jul 2004 [Full text]

Common Sense Uncommon

James L Reynolds
bmj.com, 20 Jul 2004 [Full text]

Online poll

Find out more >>