Ethics: contemporary challenges in health and social care

state in their introduction. They describe the UK healthcare and social care primarily shaped by financial and political factors since the very beginning of the National Health Service in 1948 and the fifty years to come. One of the major drivers requesting the guidance of ethics nowadays is the increased stress on the healthcare system. Demand spirals out of control by aging populations while costly new technologies enter the market. At the same time funding is restricted, healthcare professionals are getting scarce and public expectations of the system’s performance are higher then ever. Ethics are now bringing a more reflective, philosophical element into play, appearing in publications, decision-making, media coverage, corporate codes and professional guidelines.