Resources for clinical ethics consultation

Clinical ethics support services initially developed in the United States of America, following court cases such as the Karen Ann Quinlan case, which stressed the need for mechanisms to resolve ethical disputes within health care. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations requirement for hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies to have a standing mechanism to address ethical issues has also fostered this development (this requirement no longer appears in the Joint Commission regulations, however).

Despite initial doubts as the possibility of importing what was initially felt to be a specificity of the US system, ethics support services have developed in many other countries, including Canada but also various countries in Europe and Asia.

In order to share experience and resources among these clinical research ethics consultation and support services, networks and platforms have increasingly developed.Slowther A. et al: Development of clinical ethics committees. BMJ.2004;328(7445):950–952 This page is intended to summarise existing online resources aimed at assisting new and developing clinical ethics support services. Its goal is to make these resources more easily accessible. Listing in this page does not constitute endorsement of the various contents: users will still need to judge the value of these resources for themselves.

It is reasonable to suppose that these resources will increasingly be international. Because of the role of the English language in international communication, multi-lingual resources whose languages include English are given in their English title. Those not available in English are given in their original language.

Clinical ethics consultation networks

''Listed by country''

Canada

Provincial Health Ethics Network (Alberta)

United Kingdom

UK clinical ethics network

United States

Center for Practical BioethicsKansas Health Ethics Committee NetworkMaryland Healthcare Ethics Committee NetworkJohns Hopkins Research Ethics Consulting Service

National and international guidelines on clinical ethics

''Listed by country''

World Medical Association

Australia

Australian Medical Association code of ethics

Canada

Canadian Medical Association code of ethics

India

New Zealand

New Zealand Medical Association code of ethics

Switzerland

United Kingdom

British Medical Association's Medical Ethics portalBritish General Medical Council’s Guidance on Good Medical Practice

United States

Center for Practical BioethicsAmerican Medical Association code of ethics

Clinical ethics committee guidelines

Many clinical ethics support services develop guidelines and advise policy within the health care setting. While the conclusions of consultations regarding individual patients are, of course, confidential, general ethical guidelines and policy advice regarding ethical difficulties which come up repeatedly in clinical care are not. Some ethics support services make these guidelines available online. Adding yours will make these resources more useful!

''Listed by country''

Switzerland

United States

Center for Practical Bioethics

Methodological resources

Some networks and consultation services have developed tools and guidelines for the practice of clinical ethics consultation, and made them available online. The following sites provide tools, documents, and advice for new or developing clinical ethics support services:

Switzerland

Recommandations on "Ethics Support in medicine" from the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences

United Kingdom

UK Clinical Ethics Network practical guide for clinical ethics support

United States

ttp://www.ethics.va.gov/integratedethics/ieresources.asp Veterans' Administration (US) IntegratedEthics Tools and Materials

Online books

Principles of Biomedical Ethics (Tom L. Beauchamp, James F. Childress)Ethics Consultation: from theory to practice (Mark P. Aulisio, Robert M. Arnold, Stuart J. Youngner)Ethics Consultation (John La Puma, David L. Schiedermayer)Cambridge textbook of bioethics (Peter A. Singer, Adrian M. Viens)

Selected articles

ASBH Task Force on Health Care Ethics Consultation: Nature, Goals, and CompetenciesClinical bioethics integration, sustainability, and accountability: the Hub and Spokes Strategy
by the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics
Clinical ethics, information, and communication: review of 31 cases from a clinical ethics committee (Norway)Moral Deliberation in the NetherlandsClinical ethics consultation in SwitzerlandReport on the conference “clinical ethics consultation: theories and methods—implementation—evaluation,” February 11–15, 2008, Bochum, Germany

Online tutorials

''Listed by language''

English

French

International and national conferences

International Association of BioethicsInternational Conference on Clinical Ethics and Consultation

Canada

Canadian Bioethics Society

Switzerland

United States

ttp://www.asbh.org/ American Society for Bioethics and the Humanities

See also

* Bioethics
*Medical Ethics
* Nursing ethics
*Autonomy
* Principlism
* Advance health care directive
*Informed Consent
*Evidence-based medical ethics
* Do not resuscitate
*Euthanasia

*Assisted Suicide
* Psychiatry#Ethics
* Arthur Caplan
*Ruth Faden
*Ross Upshur
*Joseph Fins
*Edmund D. Pellegrino
*Jonathan D. Moreno

References

{{Reflist, 2

Further reading

*Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
*
"Principle of Beneficence in Applied Ethics"
*
"Respect"
*
"Advance Directives and Substitute Decision-Making"
*
"Decision-Making Capacity"

External links

Bioethicsweb at IntuteClinical ethics committeesJohns Hopkins ICTR Research Ethics Consulting Service

Medical ethics