Ethical Codes and Oaths Health Article

Definition

Ethical codes and oaths are statements of the moral principles and values that govern the conduct of a group, profession, or individual. In the health professions, ethical codes embody the ideals of compassion for the suffering and respect for the dignity of all human beings, as well as the highest standards of clinical research and practice.

Ethics as a discipline is the study of moral values and moral reasoning. There are two major approaches to ethics, normative and non-normative. Non-normative ethics describes and studies moral beliefs without making value judgments about right and wrong. Normative ethics tries to define and distinguish between right and wrong.

Description

Ethical codes and oaths are formal statements that serve to remind practitioners of their obligations to their patients and to the larger society. In the United States and Canada, the ethical codes that have been drafted by the various health professions are also regarded as the foun dation of the legal obligations of health care professionals—including disciplinary standards. For example, a patient who files a complaint with the ethics committee of a physician's medical society or hospital can take the complaint to the state licensing board as well. Ethics committees in the health professions have the power to suspend or expel members who have violated the ethical code that governs the profession.

The ethical standard set by the professional organization may be simple and forthright like the Hippocratic Oath for physicians, or more thorough and specific as is the code of conduct for nurses. Modern medical codes and oaths are patterned after the Hippocratic Oath and contain the same basic concepts: to work for the good of one's patients; to cause them no harm; to honor the profession of medicine and protect it from corruption; to give no drugs or perform no operation that would cause harm to the patient; and to keep medical information confidential.Whether the code is an ancient or a contemporary version, it gives the health care professional a high standard of conduct for which to strive.

Historical background

The earliest statement of ethical standards for physicians is the so-called Hippocratic Oath, attributed to the "father of medicine" in the fifth century B.C. In the West, both Judaism and Christianity gave extensive consideration to the importance of the physician's moral character as well as his clinical duties to patients. In Judaism, medical ethics is rooted in the study of specific case histories interpreted in the light of Jewish law. In medieval Christianity, ethical reflection took the form of an emphasis on duty, moral obligation, and right action. In both faiths, the relationship between the medical professional and the patient was regarded as a covenant or sacred bond of trust rather than an economic transaction or a business contract.

Since the eighteenth century, several developments have led to increased concern about the ethical standards of the health professions. These changes include:

• A philosophical emphasis on individual freedom and personal rights rather than on obligations to family or society.
• Advances in scientific knowledge and technology that raise new questions about the nature of human personhood, life, and death.
• Recognition of the vulnerability of the health professions to abuse by government authority. Specific examples include medical experiments on concentration camp inmates in Nazi Germany and the abuse of psychiatry in Stalinist Russia.
• The increased role of economic considerations in health care decisions on the individual as well as the communal level.
• The loss of a universal moral framework accepted by all or most people. Although there are a number of religious and philosophical perspectives on ethical questions that many people accept, none of these perspectives is accepted by everyone.