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Medical and nursing ethics: never the twain?

Since the publication of Carol Gilligan's In a different voice in 1982, there has been much discussion about masculine and feminine approaches to ethics. It has been suggested that an ethics of care, or a feminine ethics, is more appropriate for nursing practice, which contrasts with the 'traditional, masculine' ethics of medicine. It has been suggested that Nel Noddings' version of an 'ethics of care' (or feminine ethics) is an appropriate model for nursing ethics. The 'four principles' approach has become a popular model for medical or health care ethics. It will be suggested in this article that, whilst Noddings presents an interesting analysis of caring and the caring relationship, this has limitations. Rather than acting as an alternative to the 'four principles' approach, the latter is necessary to provide a framework to structure thinking and decision-making in health care. Further, it will be suggested that ethical separatism (that is, one ethics for nurses and one for doctors) in health care is not a progressive step for nurses or doctors. Three recommendations are made: that we promote a health care ethics that incorporates what is valuable in a 'traditional, masculine ethics', the why (four principles approach) and an 'ethics of care', the 'how' (aspects of Noddings' work and that of Urban Walker); that we encourage nurses and doctors to participate in the 'shared learning' and discussion of ethics; and that our ethical language and concerns are common to all, not split into unhelpful dichotomies.

Beneficence↗

From principles to principals: the new direction in medical ethics.

Many alternatives or supplements to "principalism" seek to reconnect medical ethics with the thoughts, feelings, and motivations of the persons directly involved in ethically troublesome situations. This shift of attention, from deeds to doers, from principles to principals, acknowledges the importance of the moral agents involved in the situation-particular practitioners, patients, and families. Taking into account the subjective, lived experience of moral decision-making parallels recent efforts in the teaching of medicine to give the patient's subjectivity-his or her personal experience of being sick or disabled epistemological parity with scientific medicine's "objective," biomedically-oriented view of the person's sickness or disability. Moreover, the shift from principalism to principals signals a growing realization that ethical problems in the profession of medicine are inseparable from its practice. Philosophers and other humanists working in medicine should resist the temptation to institutionalize a professional role as solver of ethical problems, clarifier of values, or mediator of disputes and work instead to help practitioners practice medicine reflectively.

Clinical Medicine↗

Clinical ethics as medical hermeneutics.

There are several branches of ethics. Clinical ethics, the one closest to medical decisionmaking, can be seen as a branch of medicine itself. In this view, clinical ethics is a unitary hermeneutics. Its rule is a guideline for unifying other theories of ethics in conjunction with the clinical context. Put another way, clinical ethics interprets the clinical situation in light of a balance of other values that, while guiding the decisionmaking process, also contributes to the very weighting of those values. The case itself originates ideas, not only about which value ought to predominate in its resolution, but also provides the origin of clinical rules that can be used in other cases. These are interpretive rules. Some examples of these rules are presented as well.

Beneficence↗

Respect for autonomy.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Confidentiality↗

The case: voices.

Six caregivers comment on the aftermath of a patient's disabling stroke. Their remarks about the patient and his family situation reveal much about the dynamics of the hospital hierarchy--and, incidentally, the difficulty of uncovering the "facts."

Aged↗

Principles, values, and ethics set the stage for managed care nursing.

Principles, values, and ethics constitute an ethical system that provides nurses a context in which to make ethical decisions. As the managed care environment generates new ethical issues and intensifies already existing ones, ethical education and decision-making skills become even more critical to nursing professionals, as well as physicians and hospital administrators.

Decision Making, Organizational↗

A critique of principlism.

The authors use the term "principlism" to refer to the practice of using "principles" to replace both moral theory and particular moral rules and ideals in dealing with the moral problems that arise in medical practice. The authors argue that these "principles" do not function as claimed, and that their use is misleading both practically and theoretically. The "principles" are in fact not guides to action, but rather they are merely names for a collection of sometimes superficially related matters for consideration when dealing with a moral problem. The "principles" lack any systematic relationship to each other, and they often conflict with each other. These conflicts are unresolvable, since there is no unified moral theory from which they are all derived. For comparison the authors sketch the advantages of using a unified moral theory.

Beneficence↗

Moving forward in bioethical theory: theories, cases, and specified principlism.

The field of bioethics has deployed different models of justification for particular moral judgments. The best known models are those of deductivism, casuistry, and principlism (under one, rather limited interpretation). Each of these models, however, has significant difficulties that are explored in this essay. An alternative model, suggested by the work of Henry Richardson, is presented. It is argued that specified principlism is the most promising model of justification in bioethics.

Casuistry↗

Nonabandonment: a central obligation for physicians.

Nonabandonment is one of a physician's central ethical obligations; it reflects a longitudinal commitment both to care about patients and to jointly seek solutions to problems with patients throughout their illnesses. The depth of this commitment may vary depending on the physician's and the patient's values and personalities, their shared experiences, and the patient's clinical circumstances. Traditional principled ethical analyses must balance the personal histories, values, motivations, and intentions of the participants with more general considerations. Such analyses often focus on a particular act, isolated in time, and yet the consequences of one decision immediately lead to a new set of choices. Nonabandonment places the physician's open-ended, long-term, caring commitment to joint problem solving at the core of medical ethics and clinical medicine. There is a world of difference between facing an uncertain future alone and facing it with a committed, caring, knowledgeable partner who will not shy away from difficult decisions when the path is unclear.

Adult↗

The method of 'principlism': a critique of the critique.

Several scholars have recently criticized the dominant emphasis upon mid-level principles in bioethics best exemplified by Beauchamp and Childress's Principles of Biomedical Ethics. In Part I of this essay, I assess the fairness and cogency of three broad criticisms raised against 'principlism' as an approach: (1) that principlism, as an exercise in applied ethics, is insufficiently attentive to the dialectical relations between ethical theory and mortal practice; (2) that principlism fails to offer a systematic account of the principles of non-maleficence, beneficence, respect for autonomy, and justice; and (3) that principlism, as a version of moral pluralism, is fatally flawed by its theoretical agnosticism. While acknowledging that Beauchamp and Childress's reliance upon Ross's version of intuitionism is problematic, I conclude that the critics of principlism have failed to make a compelling case against its theoretical or practical adequacy as an ethical approach. In Part II, I assess the moral theory developed by Bernard Gert in Mortality: A New Justification of the Moral Rules, because Gert has recommended his approach as a systematic alternative to principlism. I judge Gert's theory to be seriously incomplete and, in contrast to principlism, unable to generate coherent conclusions about cases of active euthanasia and paternalism.

Beneficence↗

The terminally ill--secular and Jewish ethical aspects.

Many ethical, religious, social and legal dilemmas are involved in the care of dying patients. Major changes and developments in recent years have greatly intensified these moral problems. In this article a comprehensive analysis of the relevant principles and practical approaches is offered in order to enhance the ability of health care providers to attain morally sound decisions concerning the dying patient. The relevant ethical principles include the following: value of life, quality of life, nonmaleficence, beneficence, autonomy, paternalism, justice, and the physician's integrity. In practical terms, there are three major categories: the patient, the treatment and the decision maker. A comparative analysis between secular and Jewish attitudes towards the terminally ill patient has revealed significant differences both in the fundamental underlying principles as well as in the practical solutions to the diverse and difficult ethical problems.

Attitude to Health↗

Ethical problems of recording physician-patient interactions in family practice settings.

Recordings of actual physician-patient interactions are an important tool for family medicine education and research. Their use, however, poses two sets of ethical problems: one dealing with privacy and confidentiality, and another related to limitations upon informed consent in the context of ordinary medical care. Experience with audiotaping and videotaping led to engaging in a "principle-based" method of ethical reasoning in which problems generated by difficult cases were examined in light of both current rules or guidelines and four fundamental ethical principles. Through this approach specific policies were developed for voluntary, informed consent and for protection of privacy, while recognizing that each case must be judged in the light of the physician's obligation to do the best for each patient.

Confidentiality↗

So many ways to think. An overview of approaches to ethical issues in geriatrics.

This article provides an overview of ways to think about ethical issues in geriatrics. Principle-based approaches include deontology, utilitarianism, virtue theory, and natural law. Case-based approaches include casuistry, care, and narrative ethics. Pragmatism and feminism are methods that mesh case-based with principle-based considerations. Each of these approaches is explained and critiqued in relation to specific cases in geriatrics. The author concludes that clinical ethical decisions are optimized by considering, but not necessarily following, all of the available approaches to ethical dilemmas.

Aged↗

Casuistry in medical ethics: rehabilitated, or repeat offender?

For a number of reasons, casuistry has come into vogue in medical ethics. Despite the frequency with which it is avowed, the application of casuistry to issues in medical ethics has been given virtually no systematic defense in the ethics literature. That may be for good reason, since a close examination reveals that casuistry delivers much less than its advocates suppose, and that it shares some of the same weaknesses as the principle-based methods it would hope to supplant.

Bioethical Issues↗

An analysis of some dimensions of the concept of moral sensing exemplified in psychiatric care.

There are few studies that focus on the interpersonal aspect of everyday ethical conflicts. Conceptual frameworks for research into ethical decision making in the health care system are mainly based on an ethic in which objectivity and principle-based thinking is emphasized, leaving the experience of concrete moral conflicts relatively unexplored. The aim of this paper is to analyze the dimensions of "moral sensing," a concept identified in an earlier grounded theory study of psychiatric nursing. Four dimensions of the concept of moral sensing, i.e., feeling, intuition, benevolence and genuineness, were synthesized by reviewing the works of past and contemporary philosophers. The analysis of moral sensing and its dimensions is exemplified by actual nurse-patient encounters in psychiatric nursing practice.

Decision Making↗