Topic 2: DEFINITION OF TERMS

I. WHAT IS ETHICS?
- Greek word “ethos”- behavior or custom that is permanent “ethics”
- Latin “mos” or “moris” – “morals”
- Basic human bahaviors that are specific and inherent to human beings.
- Natural to human which confers and develops goodness in them.
- A sense of right & wrong from which human actions proceeds.
- Study of the morality of the human act (Moral philosophy)
- Guides both speculative and practical intellect in the acquisition of ethical principles in concrete human
conduct.

ETHICS
- Defined as the Philosophical & Practical Science of the Morality of Human Conduct.
- Ethics is a natural science
- Ethics is not a physical science but rather a moral science.
Divisions of Ethics
1. General Ethics – presents truths about human acts
2. Special Ethics – applied ethics
1. Individual Ethics
2. Social Ethics

HEALTH ETHICS – is the division of Ethics that relates to Human Health.

HEALTH ETHICS – utilization of
H– HUMAN reasoning and
E– ETHICAL guidelines that
A– ADDRESS or
L– LOOK for answers to important questions regarding medical
T– TREATMENT and research,
H– HUMAN health and illness and the HEALTH Professions

HEALTH ETHICS AND BIO- ETHICS

1. Both are concerned about health and life
2. Both regulate human conduct by means of moral principle in relation to health and life
3. Health ethics is a part of bioethics

1. ETHICS – defined as the Practical Science of the Morality of Human Conduct.

It is:
- Practical
- A Science
- Moral
- Of Human Conduct  
2.BIO-ETHICS – is the division of Ethics that relates to Human Life or the Ethics of Life Sciences and Health
Care.
3. HEALTH ETHICS – is the division of Ethics that relates to Human Health.
- It is also considered as Ethics for the Health Professions.
4. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS – is the division of ethics that relates to Professional Behavior.

P PROFESSION owes to the

 P PUBLIC, his or her
P PROFESSION and to his or her
P PATIENT or client as he or she
P PRACTICE or carry out his or her
P PROFESSIONAL roles and functions

MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL ETHICS – a very specific branch of Professional Ethics that guides the human
conduct and moral obligations of medical and allied health professionals as they carry out their health care
functions.

5. ISSUE – is a matter in dispute that arose from any source or a matter in dispute as a consequence of
something.

6. ETHICAL ISSUES – disputes or questions related to or arising from the morality of human conduct, activity
or behavior in general terms.
7. BIOETHICAL ISSUES – disputes or questions related to Human Life and Health Care that has something to
do with values and principles.
Examples:
- Issues related to the Beginnings of Life
- Issues related to the End of Life
- Issues related to Health Care / Advances in Medical Practice or Technology
- Issues related to Patient’s Bill of Rights
- Culturally – related Health Care or Transcultural Nursing Issues
8. PROFESSIONAL ETHICS–RELATED ISSUE – disputes or questions arising from the practice of one’s
profession or arising from one’s professional behavior to consulting, researching, teaching, and writing.

Morality – quality of human acts where the acts could either be a good or right, evil or wrong.
What makes good, good?
- Agreement or conformity
What makes evil, evil?
- not in agreement or conformity
What makes a reason right?
- conformity with the truth

ETHICS AND MORALITY

1. Both Ethics and Morality deal with human act or human conduct
2. Ethics studies about morality
3. Morality gives ethics a perspective of what to study about
4. Morality provides ethics with quality that determines and distinguishes right conduct from wrong conduct.

Health care
- Prevention, treatment and management of illness and the preservation of mental and physical well-being
through the services offered by the medical and allied health professions.

POINTERS FOR A HEALTHCARE PRACTITIONER

1. Be constantly aware of and learn by heart the essential roles ethics plays in the practice of health care
2. Live the knowledge of ethics in the practice of your profession and share it with other health care
practitioners and patients
3. In case of doubt, seek counsel from persons in authority.
 4. Be brave in adhering to the objective norm or standard of morality at all times

Topic 3: HISTORY OF BIOETHICS

The Evolutionary Phases of Bioethical Studies
1. MEDICAL ETHICS – Ethical norms in the conduct of Health Care Professionals while they treat patients.
 Considered as the oldest phase of bioethical explorations
 Started with the Physician – Client Relationship
 Code of Ethics for Physicians was written as early as the 3rd century B.C. (460 – 353 B.C.) when
Hippocrates made a pledge or promise to Apollo and Asclepius regarding the Physician’s responsibility
toward patients.

Hippocratic Oath
“ I swear to Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia and all the Gods and Goddesses, making
them my witness, that I will fulfill according to my ability and judgment this oath and covenant:
To hold him who has taught me this art as equal to my parents and to live life in partnership with him, and if
he is in need of money to give him a share of mine; and to regard his offspring as equal to my brothers in male
lineage and to teach him this art if they desire to learn it without fee and covenant; to give a share of precepts and
oral instruction to all the other learning to my sons and to the sons of him who has instructed me and to pupils who
have signed the covenant and have taken oath according to the medical law, but to no one else.”

Duties and Responsibilities of the Physician as embodied in this Oath – the Physician should:
 Not prescribe fatal drugs
 Rule out abortifacients
 Avoid sexual relations
 Practice Confidentiality and Medical Secrecy.

2. RESEARCH ETHICS – a field of bio-medical ethics which entailed the use of human beings as specimens
in order to discover more advanced practices of treating the individual client.
3. Learned Professions:
 Law
 Education
 Clergy
 Health Care

Essential Characteristics of the Learned Professions are:

 Self – Regulation
 A Specialized Body of Knowledge, Standards of Education and Practice, a Fiduciary Relationship with those
served
 Provision of a Particular Service to Society

Common Problems Associated with Professional Codes include:

 Vagueness/incompleteness as to duties, levels of performance
 Excessive concern with promotion and prestige of the profession.
 Vagueness in regard to self – regulation and peer enforcement
 Excessive concern with financial and business interests.