Background The increase in empirical methods of research in bioethics over the last two decades is typically perceived as a welcomed broadening of the discipline, with increased integration of social and life scientists into the field and ethics consultants into the clinical setting, however it also represents a loss of confidence in the typical normative and analytic methods of bioethics. Discussion The recent incipiency of "Evidence-Based Ethics" attests to this phenomenon and should be rejected as a solution to the current (...) ambivalence toward the normative resolution of moral problems in a pluralistic society. While "evidence-based" is typically read in medicine and other life and social sciences as the empirically-adequate standard of reasonable practice and a means for increasing certainty, I propose that the evidence-based movement in fact gains consensus by displacing normative discourse with aggregate or statistically-derived empirical evidence as the "bottom line". Therefore, along with wavering on the fact/value distinction, evidence-based ethics threatens bioethics' normative mandate. The appeal of the evidence-based approach is that it offers a means of negotiating the demands of moral pluralism. Rather than appealing to explicit values that are likely not shared by all, "the evidence" is proposed to adjudicate between competing claims. Quantified measures are notably more "neutral" and democratic than liberal markers like "species normal functioning". Yet the positivist notion that claims stand or fall in light of the evidence is untenable; furthermore, the legacy of positivism entails the quieting of empirically non-verifiable considerations like moral claims and judgments. As a result, evidence-based ethics proposes to operate with the implicit normativity that accompanies the production and presentation of all biomedical and scientific facts unchecked. Summary The "empirical turn" in bioethics signals a need for reconsideration of the methods used for moral evaluation and resolution, however the options should not include obscuring normative content by seemingly neutral technical measure. (shrink)

Despite the increasing interest in clinical ethics, ethics consultation as a professional service is still rare in Europe. In this paper I refer to examples in the United States. In Germany, university hospitals and medical faculties are still hesitant about establishing yet another “committee”. One of the reasons for this hesitation lies in the ignorance that exists here about how to provide medical ethics services; another reason is that medical ethics itself is not yet institutionalised at many German universities. The (...) most important obstacle, however, may be that medical ethics has not yet demonstrated its relevance to the needs of those caring for patients. The Centre for Ethics and Law, Freiburg, has therefore taken a different approach from that offered elsewhere: clinical ethics consultation is offered on demand, the consultation being available to clinician(s) in different forms. This paper describes our experiences with this approach; practical issues are illustrated by a case study. (shrink)

Zur patientenorientierten Behandlung bei nichteinwilligungsfähigen Patienten werden aktuell der Einbezug oder auch die Entscheidung durch ein Ethikkonsil oder klinisches Ethikkomitee (KEK) gefordert. Damit die Entscheidung des Entscheidungsträgers durch das KEK unterstützt werden kann, müssen Zuständigkeiten, Besetzung und Arbeitsweise des Gremiums klar umschrieben sein.

Definition of the problem: In Germany, clinical ethics is still in the state of development. Ethics consultation is very new and rare in the clinical setting in German university hospitals. Therefore this paper describes the clinical ethics activities at the Medical Center of Philipps University, Marburg, regard to ethics consultation in a case report. Clinical ethics rounds at the Surgical Intensive Care Unit are organized according to the theory and practice of the ethics consultation service at the Medical Center of (...) the University of Virginia, established by J.C. Fletcher, F.G. Miller and J.J. Fins. (shrink)

Medical ethics enjoyed a remarkable degree of continuity from the days of Hippocrates until its long-standing traditions began to be supplanted, or at least supplemented, around the middle of the twentieth century. Scientific, technological, and social developments during that time produced rapid changes in the biological sciences and in health care. These developments challenged many prevalent conceptions of the moral obligations of health professionals and society in meeting the needs of the sick and injured .The Anglo-American textbook of Beauchamp and (...) Childress became the referential work for the discipline of `bio-ethics'. The authors are convinced that a long history of ancient, medieval and modern health care reflection remains very disappointing from the perspective of contemporary biomedical ethics: “It shows how inadequately, and with what measure of insularity, problems of truthfulness, privacy, justice, communal responsibility and the like were framed in past centuries ”. They defend the four principles approach to biomedical ethics, an approach which somewhat disparagingly has been called principlism.The influence of their work has been so strong that bio-ethics seemed to become overwhelmed by the importance of their contribution. It even created a large separation between Anglo-American approaches in bio-ethics and the European-Continental approach . In any case, contemporary biomedical ethics incorporates theoretical conflicts of considerable complexity, and the diverse theories make it no easier.The personalist approach to biomedical ethics presents itself as a typical European reaction to the rapid changes in medicine and health care. Some call it, however, a kind of renewal of the old Thomistic approach, whereby the concept of `nature' has been replaced by the more dynamic concept of `person'. In that way personalism has been situated by many observers as a `person' centred natural law tradition which focuses on the rational nature of the human person as the moral norm of nature. This gives the impression that personalism is only a very `static' variant of the natural law approach.I would, however, defend the opinion that personalism offers a very dynamic and creative approach to the complexities of recent developments in biomedicine. In what follows, I will illustrate this by clarifying two basic dimensions of the integration of personalism in biomedical ethics: the personalist approach offers a relational foundation for medicine as a healing profession and it presents an ethical framework for the integration of new developments in medicine. First, however, I would like to situate the importance of this theoretical reflection for medical ethics. (shrink)

In an international survey of rationing we have found that European physicians encounter scarcity-related ethical difficulties, and are dissatified with the resolution of many of these cases. Here we further examine survey results to explore whether ethics support services would be potentially useful in addressing scarcity related ethical dilemmas. Results indicate that while the type of help offered by ethics support services was considered helpful by physicians, they rarely referred difficulties regarding scarcity to ethics consultation. We propose that ethics consultants (...) could assist physicians by making the process less difficult, and by contributing to decisions being more ethically justifiable. Expertise in bringing considerations of justice to bear on real cases could also be useful in recognising an unjust limit, as opposed to a merely frustrating limit. Though these situations are unlikely to be among the most frequently referred to ethics support services, ethics consultants should be prepared to address them. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDer heutige Arbeitsalltag im medizinischen Betrieb ist durch verschiedene Belastungsfaktoren gekennzeichnet: 1) die Tempobeschleunigung und die Komplexitätssteigerung der medizinischen Entwicklung allgemein sowie 2) eine zunehmende moralische Verunsicherung des Personals in Bezug auf das Verhältnis von Möglichkeiten und Notwendigkeiten bestimmter therapeutischer Verfahren. Die in diesem Aufsatz vorgelegten Beobachtungen, die aus einem Projekt am Lehrstuhl für Ethik der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen resultieren, machen noch einen weiteren Punkt geltend, so dass 3) bereits die unterschiedliche Einschätzung rein sachlicher Fragen zu einem Dissens führen kann, der (...) als moralischer empfunden wird. Aus diesen drei Momenten erwächst ein allgemeiner Bedarf an ethischer Handlungsorientierung. Allerdings ist die Entlastung, die durch ethische Kommunikation, beispielsweise in klinischen Ethik-Komitees, erreicht wird, anderer Art als zunächst in der Regel erwartet. Denn die Leistung liegt nicht so sehr in der Lösung von Problemen als vielmehr in deren Beschreibung. (shrink)

ZusammenfassungDer heutige Arbeitsalltag im medizinischen Betrieb ist durch verschiedene Belastungsfaktoren gekennzeichnet: 1) die Tempobeschleunigung und die Komplexitätssteigerung der medizinischen Entwicklung allgemein sowie 2) eine zunehmende moralische Verunsicherung des Personals in Bezug auf das Verhältnis von Möglichkeiten und Notwendigkeiten bestimmter therapeutischer Verfahren. Die in diesem Aufsatz vorgelegten Beobachtungen, die aus einem Projekt am Lehrstuhl für Ethik der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen resultieren, machen noch einen weiteren Punkt geltend, so dass 3) bereits die unterschiedliche Einschätzung rein sachlicher Fragen zu einem Dissens führen kann, der (...) als moralischer empfunden wird. Aus diesen drei Momenten erwächst ein allgemeiner Bedarf an ethischer Handlungsorientierung. Allerdings ist die Entlastung, die durch ethische Kommunikation, beispielsweise in klinischen Ethik-Komitees, erreicht wird, anderer Art als zunächst in der Regel erwartet. Denn die Leistung liegt nicht so sehr in der Lösung von Problemen als vielmehr in deren Beschreibung. (shrink)

Despite the fact that ethics consultations are an accepted practice in most healthcare organizations, many clinical ethicists continue to feel marginalized by their institutions. They are often not paid for their time, their programs often have no budget, and institutional leaders are frequently unaware of their activities. One consequence has been their search for concrete ways to evaluate their work in order to prove the importance of their activities to their institutions through demonstrating their efficiency and effectiveness.

ZusammenfassungDer heutige Arbeitsalltag im medizinischen Betrieb ist durch verschiedene Belastungsfaktoren gekennzeichnet: 1) die Tempobeschleunigung und die Komplexitätssteigerung der medizinischen Entwicklung allgemein sowie 2) eine zunehmende moralische Verunsicherung des Personals in Bezug auf das Verhältnis von Möglichkeiten und Notwendigkeiten bestimmter therapeutischer Verfahren. Die in diesem Aufsatz vorgelegten Beobachtungen, die aus einem Projekt am Lehrstuhl für Ethik der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen resultieren, machen noch einen weiteren Punkt geltend, so dass 3) bereits die unterschiedliche Einschätzung rein sachlicher Fragen zu einem Dissens führen kann, der (...) als moralischer empfunden wird. Aus diesen drei Momenten erwächst ein allgemeiner Bedarf an ethischer Handlungsorientierung. Allerdings ist die Entlastung, die durch ethische Kommunikation, beispielsweise in klinischen Ethik-Komitees, erreicht wird, anderer Art als zunächst in der Regel erwartet. Denn die Leistung liegt nicht so sehr in der Lösung von Problemen als vielmehr in deren Beschreibung. (shrink)

Zur patientenorientierten Behandlung bei nichteinwilligungsfähigen Patienten werden aktuell der Einbezug oder auch die Entscheidung durch ein Ethikkonsil oder klinisches Ethikkomitee (KEK) gefordert. Damit die Entscheidung des Entscheidungsträgers durch das KEK unterstützt werden kann, müssen Zuständigkeiten, Besetzung und Arbeitsweise des Gremiums klar umschrieben sein.

: This response to Lynn Jansen's critique of clinical pragmatism concentrates on two themes: (1) contrasting approaches to moral epistemology and (2) the connection between theory and practice in clinical ethics. Particular attention is paid to the status of principles and the role of consensus, with some closing speculations on how Dewey might view the current state of bioethics.

Definition of the problem: Ethics consultation is one of the most important ways in which clinical ethicists can support both health-care providers and patients and their relatives in coping with ethical and existential challenges. The practice of ethics consultation, as performed at the Freiburg University Hospital is described and illustrated by a case report about the problem of treatment termination. The range of subject matters that come up in ethics consultations is analyzed. A research program in clinical ethics is summarized (...) that has been undertaken to pave the way for a specific and interdisciplinary analysis of needs; from there on, the investigation aims at further developing clinical ethics support services. Suggestions for criteria of competence for ethics consultants are formulated on the basis of both the author’s and international work. Finally, the issues of structural conditions for establishing clinical ethics in the German-speaking world are raised and the long-term prospect of ethics consultation as an instrument for learning and teaching ethics in the health-care system is highlighted. (shrink)