Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-5b777bbd6c-7sgmh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-25T06:51:57.266Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 1 - Introduction

from Section 1 - The Context of Healthcare Ethics Committee Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2022

By
D. Micah Hester  and
Toby L. Schonfeld
Edited by
D. Micah Hester  and
Toby L. Schonfeld
D. Micah Hester
Affiliation:
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, College of Medicine
Toby L. Schonfeld
Affiliation:
National Center for Ethics in Health Care, US Department of Veterans Affairs
Get access

Summary

Conrad’s case is sadly frustrating for most everyone involved, and all the while he lies in a kind of medical limbo that might stretch on for months. While everyone believes they are doing what is in Conrad’s interests, the complex family dynamics, the tragic state of Conrad’s disease, and the team’s inability to navigate all this successfully make knowing whether or not Conrad is getting the care he wants and deserves hard to determine. In addition, there are some important value conflicts that are reflected in the family’s approaches to decision-making: quality versus quantity of life, authority and resources for decision-making, and fundamental existential values may all be under debate in Conrad’s case. The atmosphere surrounding this case is charged with emotion and frustration, both for the family and the healthcare providers.

Type
Chapter
Information
Guidance for Healthcare Ethics Committees , pp. 1 - 10
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

American Hospital Association. (1986). Guidelines: Hospital committees on biomedical ethics. In Ross, JW, ed., Handbook for Hospital Ethics Committees. Chicago: American Hospital Publishing, 57, 110–111.Google Scholar
American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH). (2020). Healthcare Ethics Consultant-Certified (HEC-C) program. https://asbh.org/certification/hcec-certificationGoogle Scholar
Ethical and Judicial Council. (1985). Guidelines for ethics committees in health care institutions: Ethical and Judicial Council. JAMA, 253(18): 2698–2699.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fausett, JK, Gilmore-Szott, E, Hester, DM (2016). Networking ethics: A survey of bioethics networks across the US. HEC Forum, 28(2): 153–167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fox, E, Myers, S, Pearlman, RA (2007). Ethics consultation in United States hospitals: A national survey. American Journal of Bioethics, 7: 13–25.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fox, E, Danis, M, Tarzian, AJ, Duke, CC (2021). Ethics consultation in U.S. hospitals: A national follow-up study. American Journal of Bioethics, March 26.Google Scholar
Hajibabaee, F, Joolaee, S, Cheraghi, M, Salari, P, Rodney, P. (2016). Hospital/clinical ethics committees’ notion: An overview. Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, 9: 17.Google Scholar
McLean, SAM (2007). What and who are clinical ethics committees for? Journal of Medical Ethics, 33(2): 497–500.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prince, AER, Cadigan, RJ, Whipple, W, Davis, AM (2017). Membership recruitment and training in health care ethics committees: Results from a national pilot study. AJOB Empirical Bioethics, 8(3): 161–169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, ML, Bisanz, AK, Kempfer, AJ, Adams, B, Candelari, TG, Blackburn, RK (2004). Criteria for determining appropriate method for an ethics consultation. HEC Forum, 16(2): 95–113.Google Scholar
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. (1992). Accreditation Manual for Hospitals. Oakbrook Terrace, IL: The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×