L5/6: Clinical Ethics Flashcards
define ethics
branch of philosophy dealing with values pertaining to human conduct
ethical value 1: what is nonmaleficence
- Non-maleficence means to “do no harm.”
- Physicians must refrain from providing ineffective treatments or acting with malice toward
patients. - This principle, however, offers little useful guidance to physicians since many beneficial therapies also have serious risks.
- The ethical issue is whether the benefits outweigh the burdens.
ethical value 2: what is beneficence
- an action that is done for the benefit of others.
- Help, prevent or remove harms or to improve the situation of others.
ethical value 3: what is non exploitation
not using humans as data engines
ethical value 4: what is autonomy
Physicians must respect a patient’s right to make decisions regarding his medical care.
what are the two other ethical values
justice, and respect
what is the goal of clinical research
- Develop generalizable knowledge to increase understanding of human biology and health
what is a key ethical concern of clinical research
exploitation of human subjects
- we place people in the risk of harm for the greater good
- ethical requirements aim to minimize exploitation
what are three key sources of guidance on ethical concerns of clinical research. why were these made?
- Several international documents
- Nuremberg Code
- The Tuskegee study
- Declaration of Helsinki
- Many of these were written in response to certain specific ethical events, and have the purpose of avoiding future scandals
how did the nuremberg code come to be?
Nuremberg Code (1947) was part of the judicial
decision condemning the atrocities of the
Nazi physicians.
the concerns they were condemning were:
- forced sterilizations
- killing people with mental illness
- medical experiments that led to 200,000 deaths
what is the Tuskegee study and how was it unethical
- the goal was to study the progression of untreated syphilis in African American men.
- all participants were poor, illiterate african american men who were deceived and told they were receiving free health care and food, when they were just exploited to discover treatment. they were not told that hey had syphilis.
- even when penicillin was created to cure the treatment, they were denied the treatment and this experiment went on for decades
what is the declaration of helsinki
- A set of ethical principles and guidelines for conducting medical research involving human subjects.
- It was adopted by the World Medical Association (WMA) in 1964
- It fills in the gaps of the nuremberg code (adding independent review and risk-benefits)
what are the 10 points of the nuremberg code
- require voluntary consent
- procedure must be justified as being necessary and should yield results for the good of society
- experiment should be proceeded by animal experiments and the history of the study should be considered
- avoid unnecessary physical and mental harm
- no experiment should cause death, unless, experimental physicians also are the subjects?
- degree of risk should be less than how much it will help humanity
- proper prep for the experiment
- experiment should only be done by scientists
- subject should have the right of withdrawal
- the scientist should be able to terminate the experiment at any point
what are the 7 guidelines of unified framework (list)
also what is the purpose of the framework
Systemic framework for determining whether clinical research is ethical
- meant to be universal
- value
- scientific validity
- fair subject selection
- favourable risk benefit ratio
- independent review
- informed consent
- respect for potential and enrolled subjects
1: Value
explanation and justification
Explanation:
evaluation of a treatment, intervention of theory that will improve health and well-being or increase knowledge
- should be generalizable, yield unique results, and results that could be implemented
Justification:
scarce resources and non exploitation
