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Thomas Percival (1740-1804), physician and medical reformer, enthused by the scientific and cultural advances of the Enlightenment in Britain, wrote on many subjects, but was particularly concerned about public health issues arising from factory conditions. Urging...

Across all branches of medicine, effective communication between healthcare professionals and patients, families and carers is essential to ensure treatment is of the highest standard. Growing public awareness of health problems and easy...

The notion of respect for autonomy dominates bioethical discussions, although what exactly qualifies as an autonomous action is often elusive. In recent decades, the concept of autonomy in medical contexts has often been defined in...

The emergence of autonomy as a socio-political, legal and moral concept has had a profound impact on medical ethics. It shifted the centre of decision-making from the doctor to the patient and reoriented the entire doctor-patient relationship towards a more open,...

The concept of autonomy commonly used in medical ethics literature and practice is inadequate for three reasons: it does not properly identify non-autonomous actions and choices, it provides a false explanation of which characteristics of actions and choices make...

This article, the Romanell Report, provides an analysis of the current state of medical ethics education in the United States, with a particular focus on its crucial role in developing professionalism among medical students. Ethics education has become...

Conventional medical ethics and the law draw a clear line that distinguishes the permitted practice of withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from the prohibited practice of active euthanasia by lethal injection. When clinicians legitimately abandon ...

This article points out that lack of access to the fruits of modern medicine and the science that informs it is an important and neglected topic in bioethics and medical ethics. Drawing on experiences with infectious diseases in some of the poorest...

This review article describes the current scope, methods and content of teaching medical ethics in medical schools in Western English-speaking countries (mainly the UK, US and Australia). It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of current ...

The prevailing conception of medical ethics taught in UK and US medical schools is pointless at best and dangerous at worst. While it is commendable that medical schools have now given medical ethics a safe place...

The Rebalance and Integrate Medical Education (PRIME) project was convened in May 2010, and undertook the first critical evaluation of the definitions, aims and objectives of teaching medical ethics and the humanities. The authors describe the formation of a nationwide expert panel ...

This article highlights that medical professionals need a good understanding of specific codes of ethics because of the potential consequences of their actions. Over the past thirty years there has been an increase in the breadth and depth of ethics teaching in the medical profession....

This article stresses that autonomy is a central value in Western medicine and medical ethics, but what role medicine should give to patient autonomy seems somewhat unclear. It is likely that autonomous individuals are often at their best ...

The purpose of this article was to characterise undergraduate medical ethics programmes in the UK and to identify opportunities and threats to teaching and learning. Completed responses were received from 22/28 schools (79%). Seventeen...

Narrative contributes to medical ethics through the content of stories (what patients say) and by analysing their form (how they are told and why it matters). The study of fictional and fact-based stories can be an important aid to understanding...