ethical theories and approaches to medical ethics

On Using Ethical Theories to Teach Engineering Ethics

Many engineering ethics classes and textbooks introduce theories such as utilitarianism and Kantianism (and most others draw from these theories without mentioning them explicitly). Yet using ethical theories to teach engineering ethics is not devoid of difficulty. First, their status is unclear (should one pick a single theory or use them all? does it make a difference?) Also, textbooks genera...

Theories of Medical Ethics: the Philosophical Structure

Towards Machine Ethics: Implementing Two Action-Based Ethical Theories

Machine ethics, in contrast to computer ethics, is concerned with the behavior of machines towards human users and other machines. It involves adding an ethical dimension to machines. Our increasing reliance on machine intelligence that effects change in the world can be dangerous without some restraint. We explore the implementation of two action-based ethical theories that might serve as a fo...

Teaching communication skills and medical ethics to undergraduate medical student

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to improve communication skills and knowledge of bioethics of last year medical students doing clerkship and to evaluate the effectiveness of using workshops for this purpose from students’ point of view, in order to continue such programs in future. Methods: After Ethical approval for the study a two-day workshop on teaching effective communication s...

GLOBAL MEDICAL ETHICS Ethical dilemmas in community mental health care

Ethical dilemmas in community mental health care is the focus of this article. The dilemmas are derived from a discussion of the results of a qualitative research project that took place in five countries of the European Union. The different stakeholders are confronted with the following dilemmas: community care versus hospital care (clients); a life with care versus a life without care (inform...

Medical ethics and more: ideal theories, non-ideal theories and conscientious objection.

Doing 'good medical ethics' requires acknowledgment that it is often practised in non-ideal circumstances! In this article I present the distinction between ideal theory (IT) and non-ideal theory (NIT). I show how IT may not be the best solution to tackle problems in non-ideal contexts. I sketch a NIT framework as a useful tool for bioethics and medical ethics and explain how NITs can contribut...