Guidance for Healthcare Ethics Committees

by Edited by D. Micah Hester , Toby Schonfeld

• ISBN13: 9780521279871
• ISBN10: 0521279879
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Every accredited American hospital is required to have a mechanism for handling ethical concerns; most hospitals satisfy this requirement by constituting an institutional healthcare ethics committee (HEC), a pattern which is repeated in most western countries. This text provides definitive, comprehensive guidance for members of healthcare ethics committees who find themselves confronted with ethically challenging situations. Each chapter includes learning objectives, clinical case studies and questions to stimulate discussion among committee members. Particular emphasis is given to consultation, as this often presents the greatest challenges to committee members. Each chapter stands alone as a teaching module, as well as forming part of a comprehensive volume. Written and edited by nationally and internationally recognized experts in bioethics, this is essential reading for every member of a healthcare ethics committee.

Table of Contents

Preface

The Context of Healthcare Ethics

Introduction to healthcare ethics committees

Brief introduction to ethics and ethical theory

Ethics committees and the law

Cultural and religious issues in health care

Consultation

Mission, vision, goals: defining the parameters of the ethics consultation

Ethics consultation process

Informed consent, shared decision making, and the ethics committee

Decision-making capacity

Family dynamics and surrogate decision making Lisa

Confidentiality

Advance care planning and end-of-life decision making Nancy

Medical futility Thaddeus

Ethical issues in reproduction

Ethical issues in neonatology

Ethical issues in pediatrics

Policy Development and Organizational Issues

Ethics committees and distributive justice

Developing effective ethics policy

Implementing policy to the wider community

Ethics in and for the organization

Educating Others

The healthcare ethics committee as educator

Education as prevention

Understanding ethics pedagogy

Index

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