 Conclusion
An Introduction to Doing Medical Ethics
Michael A. Gillette, Ph.D.
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Conclusion
Over the past quarter century medical ethics has
developed as a distinct field of expertise involving
well defined processes of evaluation and conflict resolution. In addition to being a useful support for
staff and clients, medical ethics expertise has rapidly become
part of the standard for the provision of
healthcare in the United States.
Developing a strong ethics
program is an important part of any healthcare delivery
mechanism. An ethics program:
- improves the ability of individuals to reflect on
difficult ethical issues that they face,
- offers the opportunity to share the responsibility
of making difficult ethical decisions with a group of
reflective people,
- provides a reasoned response to conflict and
confusion of an ethical nature,
- often helps to resolve conflicts before the use of
legal intervention is necessary.
Even when legal
involvement is the best course of action, well defined
ethical evaluation of a case is important to
establish that a reasoned and responsible attitude
has been applied.
As people become more aware of the existence of ethics
committees in healthcare settings, they will
demand the services that these committees
provide. It is becoming more important for all care providers to satisfy this reasonable and productive
expectation.
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