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Clinical Artificial Intelligence – Technology Application or Change Management?
Published in Sandeep Reddy, Artificial Intelligence, 2020
Christopher Pearce, Adam McLeod, Anna Fragkoudi, Natalie Rinehart
Ethics has long been a significant part of medical practice (Beauchamp & Childress, 2013) and underpins the very nature of the profession. Medical ethics are famously associated with the Hippocratic oath dating from ancient Greece – a statement that was designed to guide doctors in their relationships with patients and colleagues. Modern ethics were first codified in 1803 (Armstrong, 2006) a document that described a set of principles for doctors dealing with each other. Now, most medical societies have some form of ethical code that is used to guide their inter-professional and professional conduct. However, as medicine is more than just an individual doctor’s relationship with an individual patient, ethical codes need to take into account the conflicting issues that can occur in fields such as public health, for instance (Miettinen, 2005). Ethical thinking has been slowly moving to the concepts of the impacts of decisions, not just actions (Goodman, 2005). Then, there are the ethical frameworks that may apply to institutions (McCrickerd, 2000). All of these have an impact on the clinical space.
Ethics, Professional Behaviour and Regulation
Published in Bill Runciman, Alan Merry, Merrilyn Walton, Safety and Ethics in Healthcare, 2007
Bill Runciman, Alan Merry, Merrilyn Walton
The field of medical ethics has origins which predate Hippocrates, but it is generally accepted that the Hippocratic Oath gave doctors their first code of ethical practice. A code of practice requires members of a professional group to adhere to a set of rules or desired behaviours. The Hippocratic Oath required physicians to recognize their limitations, not to prescribe deadly drugs, procure abortions, harm patients or have sexual relations with them, and to keep confidential information imparted by patients.6
Challenging Boundaries: Life and Material, Self and Environment
Published in Harry F. Tibbals, Medical Nanotechnology and Nanomedicine, 2017
The most famous Greek doctor was Hippocrates, who also was elevated to cult status, with an attributed genealogy descending from Aslepius. Modern Western science-based medicine reveres Hippocrates as a physician who applied philosophical enquiry to medicine and encoded ethical standards for practice. The admonition in the Hippocratic oath: “First, do no harm,” is still the foundation of medical practice.
Medical textiles
Published in Textile Progress, 2020
The Hippocratic statement of “natura medicatrix”, the healing power of items from nature is well known though often disregarded [13]. Indeed, natural textile-based products continue to be used in current times and the progression of technology has allowed for careful engineering of nature to our advantage; for example, the antimicrobial properties and structure of spider webs being used in nanotechnology [14]. Whilst the Hippocratic Oath, once sworn as entrance into the medical profession, has been replaced by the Declaration of Geneva, the fundamental principle that the health of the patient will be the first consideration remains [15]. Certainly, patient safety is of paramount importance and due consideration needs to be granted as there can often be a very fine line between causing considerable harm and undertaking considerable good, hence medical practitioners need not only to be equipped with the means to help the patient but also adequate personal protection to help them to keep working effectively.
Strengths of the French end-of-life Law as Well as its Shortcomings in Handling Intractable Disputes Between Physicians and Families
Published in The New Bioethics, 2020
Jonathan Messika, Noël Boussard, Claude Guérin, Fabrice Michel, Saad Nseir, Hodane Yonis, Claire-Marie Barbier, Anahita Rouzé, Virginie Fouilloux, Stephane Gaudry, Jean-Damien Ricard, Henry Silverman, Didier Dreyfuss
The only potential source that could inform medical decision stemmed from the Hippocratic Oath, which specified that the physician is never allowed to cause death. But such statements are ambiguous and did not give much direction. Accordingly, ICU physicians were still faced with a difficult conundrum: what would be the morally correct course of action when there was little chance of survival in a patient who was ventilator-dependent and whose life would immediately cease once the ventilator was withdrawn? One may consider that the physician should not prolong suffering. On the other side, a legal investigation may conclude that withdrawing the ventilator after discussion with medical and nursing teams, which is followed by the patient’s death, constitutes premeditated homicide that is punished by a life imprisonment sentence. The lack of a legal framework to guide end-of-life decisions when such an ethical dilemma occurs with terminally ill patients in the ICU raised suspicion about the possibility of hidden terminations of life. On the other hand, undue prolongations of life by invasive interventions frequently resulted in moral distress suffered by all the parties (patient, family and medical and nursing teams), as well as misuse of ICU resources.
The Climate Emergency: Are the Doctors who take Non-violent Direct Action to Raise Public Awareness Radical Activists, Rightminded Professionals, or Reluctant Whistleblowers?
Published in The New Bioethics, 2020
Many medical schools expect their student to take an oath or pledge at their graduation. This has its origins in the earliest expression of medical ethics in the western world: the Hippocratic oath (Edelstein 1943). In 1948, the World Medical Association (WMA) was concerned over the state of medical ethics and drafted a pledge – the Declaration of Geneva (wma.net 1948) – so that the oath’s moral code could be passed on in a modern way. In the 1960s, the Hippocratic Oath itself was changed to make it a more contemporary and secular obligation (Lasagna 1964).