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Putting it into context…

Health Care Ethics Area Judgment Sanction

Professional Proper or improper Loss of professional
respect & fellowship
etiquette
Legal Legal or illegal Punishment by law

requirements
Ethical Right or wrong Loss of professional
reputation &/ or
conduct affiliation

Ethics is a branch of philosophy 

Joany S Rabilas, MSBA, RN study of ideal human behavior

ETHICS ETHICS
• Practical science of the morality of the human
• Immorality – unacceptable behavior as
conduct
compared to accepted social moral
standards
Professional
• Amoral – actions done with
Ethics
indifference to, or no concern, for
Ethics moral norms
• Nonmoral – if moral norms and
standards do not apply

Development of
ISSUES Bioethics
• Medical ethics
– Started with the physician- client
• Issue – matter of dispute relationship
• Ethical issue – dispute or questions – Hippocrates : Hippocratic Oath
arising from the morality of human • Research ethics
conduct, activity or behavior in general – Use of human beings as specimen
terms – Research of the Nazis  Nuremberg
code
• Bioethical issue – dispute or questions – Tuskegee study
related to human life & health care • Learned professions
related to values & principles – Law, Education, Clergy, Health care

1

Dev’t… Medical
Hippocratic Oath
– I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods
and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfil according to my ability
and judgment this oath and this covenant:
• To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents
and to live my life in partnership with him, and if he is in need of
money to give him a share of mine, and to regard his offspring as
equal to my brothers in male lineage and to teach them this art—
if they desire to learn it—without fee and covenant; to give a
share of precepts and oral instruction and all the other learning to
my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to
pupils who have signed the covenant and have taken an oath
according to the medical law, but no one else.
Hippocratic Oath
– I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods
and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability
and judgment this oath and this covenant:
• What I may see or hear in the course of the treatment or even outside of the
treatment in regard to the life of men, which on no account one must spread
abroad, I will keep to myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.
• If I fulfill this oath and do not violate it, may it be granted to me to enjoy life
and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I
transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of all this be my lot.
—Translation from the Greek by Ludwig Edelstein. From The Hippocratic Oath:
Text, Translation, and Interpretation, by Ludwig Edelstein. Baltimore: Johns
Hopkins Press, 1943.
Tuskegee Study
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Hippocratic Oath
– I swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the gods
and goddesses, making them my witnesses, that I will fulfill according to my ability
and judgment this oath and this covenant:
• I will apply dietetic measures for the benefit of the sick according to my ability
and judgment; I will keep them from harm and injustice.
• I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a
suggestion to this effect. Similarly I will not give to a woman an abortive
remedy. In purity and holiness I will guard my life and my art.
• I will not use the knife, not even on sufferers from stone, but will withdraw in
favor of such men as are engaged in this work.
• Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining
free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual
relations with both female and male persons, be they free or slaves.
Dev’t… Research
Nazi Human Experimentation
Dev’t…
Learned professions
– Essential characteristics:
• Self- regulation
• Specialized body of knowledge
• Standards of education & practice
• Fiduciary relationship
• Provision of a particular service to society
– Common problems associated with professional codes:
• Vagueness/ incompleteness of duties
• Excessive concern with promotion & prestige of profession
• Vagueness in self- regulation & peer enforcement
• Excessive concern with financial & business interests
2

Bioethics came to exist because…
• … need to improve the health
situation.
• … presence of many factors
affecting health.
• … scientific advances in health
care.
… To be true to our calling as health
care professionals,
• … not only depend on scientific
knowledge BUT consider man’s needs,
values as well as ultimate needs.
• … make decisions with correct moral
reasoning & well- grounded judgment.
• … strive to learn & act courageously.
• … make personal choices &
commitment.
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Importance of learning
Bioethics & Health ethics
• Awareness & opportunity for evaluation of
divergent ethical perceptions.
• Moral reasoning, judgment & action.
• Professional behavior & practice guideline.
• Competence enrichment.
• Improves genuine interdisciplinary thinking &
collaboration.
References
• Butts, J.B., Rich, K.L. (2016). Nursing ethics Across the curriculum and
into practice Fourth edition. Burlington, Massachusetts, USA: Jones &
Bartlett Learning, LLC, an Ascend Learning Company.
• De Belen, R. T., De Belen, D. V. (2007). Nursing law, jurisprudence &
professional ethics First edition. Quezon City, Philippines: C&E
Publishing, Inc.
• Edge, R.S., Groves, J.R. (2018). Ethics of health care A guide for clinical
practice 4th edition. Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Cengage Learning.
• Theology of Work Project, Inc. (2014). Different approaches to ethics.
Retrieved on 19 August 2015 from:
http://www.theologyofwork.org/key-topics/ethics/systematic-
presentation-of-ethics/different-approaches-to-ethics/
• Venzon, L. M., Venzon, R. M. (2005). Professional nursing in the
Philippines Tenth edition. Quezon City, Philippines: C&E Publishing, Inc.