THE ETHICAL PERSPECTIVE: Abstract.

Presentation by Professor Raanan Gillon, Professor of medical ethics at St Mary's Hospital, London. .

In this presentation the issue is analysed in terms of 'the four principles plus scope approach'.(1) The core moral obligations of medicine are to provide net health benefit with minimal harm (beneficence and non-maleficence - the moral obligations to benefit and not to harm). In doing so the patient's autonomy should be respected - in so far as such respect is compatible with equal respect for the autonomy of all potentially affected. Here the meaning of autonomy - literally self rule - will be shown to have perhaps surprising implications. Finally, the issue should be assessed in the light of obligations to be just or fair, with especial emphasis in this context on distributive justice - fair allocation of scarce resources. Finally the moral role of ' naturalness' (as in 'natural childbirth is preferable to surgical childbirth') will be briefly analysed.

Reference:

1 Gillon R . Medical ethics: four principles plus attention to scope. British Medical Journal 1994; 309: 184-188

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