background: one of the domains of scientific activities is working on animals. performing experiments on animals is per­missible only with the purpose of obtaining necessary information for saving and improving life of human be­ings or ani­mals. principally, all religions believe that human life is more valuable than animal life and humans have a god-given au­thority over animals, but they shou...

Formal clinical ethics review first developed in the USA and most hospitals there have structures in place. This is often a clinical ethics committee. Developments have been slower in the UK, where there has been uncertainty and variability about the role of clinical ethics committees. Even in the USA, their exact role is uncertain. Although we now have a good idea of the mechanisms for ethical...

Research ethics review is an important process, designed to protect participants in medical research. However, it is increasingly criticised for failing to meet its aims. Here, two researchers reflect on their experiences of applying for ethical approval of observational research in clinical settings. They highlight some problems faced by reviewers and researchers and propose a two-stage ethica...

OBJECTIVES Assessment of ethical aspects of a technology is an important component of health technology assessment (HTA). Nevertheless, how the implementation of ethical assessment in HTA is to be organized and adapted to specific regulatory and organizational settings remains unclear. The objective of this study is to present a framework for systematic identification of ethical aspects of heal...

in the editorial published in this journal, daniels and colleagues argue that his and sabin’s accountability for reasonableness (a4r) framework should be used to handle ethical issues in the health technology assessment (hta)-process, especially concerning fairness. in contrast to this suggestion, it is argued that such an approach risks suffering from the irrrelevance or insufficiency they war...

Bloch & Green (2006) provide an excellent overview of the ethical issues that are encountered in clinical psychiatry and the different available frameworks for understanding and resolving them. What is striking, however, is that this discourse is almost entirely without reference to God or religion. Such pragmatic atheism is, of course, not at all unusual these days. It is a reflection of the i...

Bloch & Green (2006) provide an excellent overview of the ethical issues that are encountered in clinical psychiatry and the different available frameworks for understanding and resolving them. What is striking, however, is that this discourse is almost entirely without reference to God or religion. Such pragmatic atheism is, of course, not at all unusual these days. It is a reflection of the i...