Psychiatric practice is often faced with complex situations that seem to pose serious moral dilemmas for practitioners. Methods for solving these dilemmas have included the development of more objective rules to guide the practitioner such as utilitarianism and deontology. A more modern variant on this objective model has been 'Principlism' where 4 mid level rules are used to help solve these c...

biomedical ethics is a branch of professional or practical ethics that examine the moral aspects of profession of medicine. every professional ethics due its issues and problems determine an especial theory and principles. in this article after referring to the three branches of ethics and describing important schools of ethical theory we have explained the six main approaches to biomedical eth...

When ethics committees evaluate the research proposals submitted to them by biomedical scientists, they can seek guidance from laws and regulations, their own beliefs, values and experiences, and from the theories of philosophers. The starting point of this paper is that philosophers can only be helpful to the members of ethics committees if they take into account in their models both the basic...

Bioethical decision-making depends on presuppositions about the function and goal of bioethics. The authors in this issue of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy share the assumption that bioethics is about resolving cases, not about moral theory, and that the best method of bioethical decision-making is that which produces useful answers. Because we have no universally agreed upon background...

Most forensic psychiatrists occasionally face complex situations in forensic work in which ethics dilemmas cause discomfort. They want to determine the most ethical action, but the best choice is unclear. Fostering justice is primary in forensic roles, but secondary duties such as traditional biomedical ethics and personal values like helping society, combating racism, and being sensitive to cu...

BACKGROUND Intervention studies for depression and intimate partner violence (IPV) commonly incorporate screening to identify eligible participants. The challenge is that current ethical evaluation is largely informed by the four principle approach applying principles of beneficence, non-maleficence, and respect for justice and autonomy. We examine three intervention studies for IPV, postnatal ...

a consensus hitherto concerningan optimal theoretical framework for ethical decision-makingand corresponding action.Various theories have been considered, but foundwanting.Moreover, classic theoriesmaycontradictone another, contribute to confusion and immobilisethe clinician.Wehave examined major theories commonly applied in bioethics, conferredwithmoral philosophers andpsychiatrists and strive...

Hardly any other artificially made medicine has ever had such a dangerous and unexpected potential as thalidomide. The medicine, which started its life as a harmless sleep-inducing substance, caused neurological and teratogenic damage, and, at the moment is a promising candidate for the fight against leprosy, cancer, and AIDS. The present study focuses on the early German history. It takes the ...

Recent technological and educational shifts have made it possible to capture students' facial expressions during learning with the goal of detecting learners' emotional states. Those interested in affect detection argue these tools will support automated emotions-based interventions, providing professionals opportunity develop individualized, emotionally responsive instructional offerings at sc...

Despite tendencies to compete for a prime place in moral theory, neither virtue ethics nor the four principles approach should claim to be superior to, or logically prior to, the other. Together they provide a more adequate account of the moral life than either can offer on its own. The virtues of principlism are clarity, simplicity and (to some extent) universality. These are well illustrated ...