Autonomous robots such as self-driving cars are already able to make decisions that have ethical consequences. As such machines make increasingly complex and important decisions, we will need to know that their decisions are trustworthy and ethically justified. Hence we will need them to be able to explain the reasons for these decisions: ethical decision-making requires that decisions be expla...

421 Medical practitioners are beginning to realise that conflict between medical paternalism and patient autonomy would arise if they continue to uphold this dualism as distinct in all circumstances of medical practice. Information about an intended medical procedure or clinical research involving humans needs to be comprehensively transmitted so that the client can make a rational decision to ...

Discussions of agent autonomy levels largely ignore the function of norms in the agents’ decision making process. Allowing artificial agents to use norms makes smooth interaction in the social space less problematic. Agent autonomy will also increase if one grants agents normative support, making accurate and consistent models of other agents feasible. This will result in better behavior predic...

introduction. despite the implementation of hospital autonomy in many developed (france, denmark) and developing countries(ghana, zimbabwe, kenya and indonesia) since the early 1980s , relatively little research has been directed towards evaluating the experiences of these hospitals .efficiency, equity, accountability and quality of care can be considered as four main evaluative criteria in ass...

For centuries, physicians have been allowed to interfere and overrule patient's preferences with the aim of securing patient benefit or preventing harm. With the radical rise in emphasis on individual control and freedom, medical paternalism no longer receives unquestioned acceptance by society as the dominant mode for decision-making in health care. But neither is a decision-making approach ba...

Decentralisation has been described as an empty concept that lacks clarity. Yet there is an enduring interest in the process of decentralisation within health systems and public services more generally. Many claims about the benefits of decentralisation are not supported by evidence. It may be useful as an organising framework for analysis of health systems but in this context it lacks conceptu...

BACKGROUND In Ghana, the site of this study, the maternal mortality ratio and under-five mortality rate remain high indicating the need to focus on maternal and child health programming. Ghana has high use of antenatal care (95%) but sub-optimum levels of institutional delivery (about 57%). Numerous barriers to institutional delivery exist including financial, physical, cognitive, organizationa...

OBJECTIVE To develop and validate a new instrument that assesses women's autonomy and role in decision making during maternity care. DESIGN Through a community-based participatory research process, service users designed, content validated, and administered a cross-sectional quantitative survey, including 31 items on the experience of decision-making. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS Pregnancy expe...