Clinical ethics support services initially developed in the United States of America, following court cases such as the Karen Ann Quinlan case, which stressed the need for mechanisms to resolve ethical disputes within health care. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations requirement for hospitals, nursing homes, and home care agencies to have a standing mechanism to address ethical issues has also fostered this development (this requirement no longer appears in the Joint Commission regulations, however). Despite initial doubts as the possibility of importing what was initially felt to be a specificity of the US system, ethics support services have developed in many other countries, including Canada but also various countries in Europe and Asia. In order to share experience and resources among these clinical research ethics consultation and support services, networks and platforms have increasingly developed. This page is intended to summarise existing online resources aimed at assisting new and developing clinical ethics support services. Its goal is to make these resources more easily accessible. Listing in this page does not constitute endorsement of the various contents: users will still need to judge the value of these resources for themselves. It is reasonable to suppose that these resources will increasingly be international. Because of the role of the English language in international communication, multi-lingual resources whose languages include English are given in their English title. Those not available in English are given in their original language.
Clinical ethics consultation networks Listed by country
Canada Provincial Health Ethics Network (Alberta)
United Kingdom UK clinical ethics network
United States Center for Practical Bioethics Kansas Health Ethics Committee Network Maryland Healthcare Ethics Committee Network Midwest Ethics Committee Network Johns Hopkins Research Ethics Consulting Service
National and international guidelines on clinical ethics Listed by country
World Medical Association International code of medical ethics
Australia Australian Medical Association code of ethics
Canada Canadian Medical Association code of ethics
India Medical Council of India code of ethics
New Zealand New Zealand Medical Association code of ethics
Switzerland Medical ethics recommendations of the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences
United Kingdom British Medical Association's Medical Ethics portal British General Medical Council’s Guidance on Good Medical Practice
United States Center for Practical Bioethics American Medical Association code of ethics
Clinical ethics committee guidelines Many clinical ethics support services develop guidelines and advise policy within the health care setting. While the conclusions of consultations regarding individual patients are, of course, confidential, general ethical guidelines and policy advice regarding ethical difficulties which come up repeatedly in clinical care are not. Some ethics support services make these guidelines available online. Adding yours will make these resources more useful! Listed by country
Switzerland Recommandations du Conseil d'éthique clinique de Genève
United States Center for Practical Bioethics
Methodological resources Some networks and consultation services have developed tools and guidelines for the practice of clinical ethics consultation, and made them available online. The following sites provide tools, documents, and advice for new or developing clinical ethics support services:
Switzerland Recommandations on "Ethics Support in medicine" from the Swiss Academy of Medical Sciences
United Kingdom UK Clinical Ethics Network practical guide for clinical ethics support
United States University of Washington guide on clinical ethics committees and consultation Veterans' Administration (US) IntegratedEthics Tools and Materials
Online books Principles of Biomedical Ethics (Tom L. Beauchamp, James F. Childress) Ethics Consultation: from theory to practice (Mark P. Aulisio, Robert M. Arnold, Stuart J. Youngner) Ethics Consultation (John La Puma, David L. Schiedermayer) Cambridge textbook of bioethics (Peter A. Singer, Adrian M. Viens)
Selected articles ASBH Task Force on Health Care Ethics Consultation: Nature, Goals, and Competencies Clinical bioethics integration, sustainability, and accountability: the Hub and Spokes Strategy by the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics Clinical ethics, information, and communication: review of 31 cases from a clinical ethics committee (Norway)[link removed] Moral Deliberation in the Netherlands Clinical ethics consultation in Switzerland Report on the conference “clinical ethics consultation: theories and methods—implementation—evaluation,” February 11–15, 2008, Bochum, Germany
Online tutorials Listed by language
English Skill Building in Ethics Case Consultation at the Neiswanger Institute
French Études de cas du Conseil d'éthique clinique de Genève
International and national conferences International Association of Bioethics International Conference on Clinical Ethics and Consultation
Canada Canadian Bioethics Society
Switzerland Société Suisse d'Éthique Biomédicale / Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Biomedizinische Ethik
United States American Society for Bioethics and the Humanities
See also
References
Further reading Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Principle of Beneficence in Applied Ethics" "Respect" "Advance Directives and Substitute Decision-Making" "Decision-Making Capacity"
External links Bioethicsweb at Intute: Clinical ethics committees Johns Hopkins ICTR Research Ethics Consulting Service