Clinical ethics resources from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians

AbstractGlobal mental health, as a field, has focused on both increasing access to mental health services and promoting human rights. Amidst many successes in engaging with and addressing various human rights violations affecting individuals living with psychosocial disabilities, one human rights challenge remains under-discussed: involuntary inpatient admission for psychiatric care. Global mental health ought to engage proactively with the debate on the ethics of involuntary admission and work to develop a clear position, for three reasons. Firstly, the field promotes models of mental healthcare that are likely to include involuntary admission. Secondly, the field aligns much of its human rights framework with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which opposes the discriminatory use of involuntary admission on the basis of psychosocial disability or impairment. Finally, global mental health, as a field, is uniquely positioned to offer novel contributions to this long-standing debate in clinical ethics by collecting data and conducting analyses across settings. Global mental health should take up involuntary admission as a priority area of engagement, applying its own orientation toward research and advocacy in order to explore the dimensions of when, if ever, involuntary admission may be permissible. Such work stands to offer meaningful contributions to the challenge of involuntary admission.

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Living bioethics, clinical ethics committees and children's consent to heart surgery

Clinical Ethics ◽

10.1177/14777509211034145 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 147775092110341

Author(s):

Priscilla Alderson ◽

Deborah Bowman ◽

Joe Brierley ◽

Martin J. Elliott ◽

Romana Kazmi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Clinical Ethics ◽

Heart Surgery ◽

Social Research ◽

Ethics Committees ◽

Companion Paper ◽

Ethics Committee ◽

Research Report ◽

Discussion Paper ◽

Clinical Ethics Committee ◽

Clinical Ethics Committees

This discussion paper considers how seldom recognised theories influence clinical ethics committees. A companion paper examined four major theories in social science: positivism, interpretivism, critical theory and functionalism, which can encourage legalistic ethics theories or practical living bioethics, which aims for theory–practice congruence. This paper develops the legalistic or living bioethics themes by relating the four theories to clinical ethics committee members’ reported aims and practices and approaches towards efficiency, power, intimidation, justice, equality and children’s interests and rights. Different approaches to framing ethical questions are also considered. Being aware of the four theories’ influence can help when seeking to understand and possibly change clinical ethics committee routines. The paper is not a research report but is informed by a recent study in two London paediatric cardiac units. Forty-five practitioners and related experts were interviewed, including eight members of ethics committees, about the work of informing, preparing and supporting families during the extended process of consent to children’s elective heart surgery. The mosaic of multidisciplinary teamwork is reported in a series of papers about each profession, including this one on bioethics and law and clinical ethics committees’ influence on clinical practice. The qualitative social research was funded by the British Heart Foundation, in order that more may be known about the perioperative views and needs of all concerned. Questions included how disputes can be avoided, how high ethical standards and respectful cooperation between staff and families can be encouraged, and how minors’ consent or refusal may be respected, with the support of clinical ethics committees.

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Metaphysics, Reason, and Religion in Secular Clinical Ethics

The American Journal of Bioethics ◽

10.1080/15265161.2021.1915423 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 21 (6) ◽

pp. 17-18

Author(s):

Jason T. Eberl

Keyword(s):

Clinical Ethics

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ROYAL AUSTRALASIAN COLLEGE OF SURGEONS

The Medical Journal of Australia ◽

10.5694/j.1326-5377.1976.tb134482.x ◽

1976 ◽

Vol 2 (5) ◽

pp. 192-192

Keyword(s):

Royal Australasian College

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The Case: Starving for Perfection

Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics ◽

10.1017/s0963180112000138 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 21 (3) ◽

pp. 396-397 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

RUCHIKA MISHRA

Keyword(s):

Clinical Ethics ◽

Ethics Committees ◽

Ethics Committee

To submit a case that has been reviewed by an ethics committee or to submit papers on related topics in clinical ethics, readers are invited to contact Ruchika Mishra, editor of “Ethics Committees and Consultants at Work,” at: [email protected].

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