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Chapter 1 - Introduction to Ethics and Ethical Theory

from Part I - General Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2020

By
Ian Kerridge
Edited by
Stephen Honeybul
Stephen Honeybul
Affiliation:
Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Royal Perth and Fiona Stanley Hospitals
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Summary

Clinicians, and their patients, live and practice in a world characterised by illness, sickness, disease, and suffering. Theirs is not an abstract or theoretical world, but a very real one. And in this world their concern is how healthcare can cure, ameliorate, or palliate these symptoms and maladies. For all of these reasons, medicine has been concerned with determining what works and what doesn’t, what provides benefit and what is harmful, and what should be done in any given situation.

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Information
Ethics in Neurosurgical Practice , pp. 3 - 11
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Hume, D. A Treatise of Human Nature. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1978, 1738–40.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, L. Culture and Values. Ed. von Wright, G, Nyman, H. Oxford, Blackwell, 1980.Google Scholar
Kerridge, I., Lowe, M., Stewart, C. Ethics and Law for the Health Professions. 4th ed. Sydney, The Federation Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Beauchamp, B., Childress, J. Principles of Biomedical Ethics. 7th ed. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2012.Google Scholar
Gillon, R. Medical ethics: four principles plus attention to scope. BMJ 1994; 309: 184–8.Google Scholar

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