Medical Chronicle November/December 2013 | Page 58

ETHICS

ETHICS

Ethics for all

Having an ethical framework for our professional and personal lives is both important and enriching. The
choices we need to make will not always be straightforward, and a professional career throws many difficult
situations and conflicts our way - especially in a field such as healthcare. Ahead of the Medical Protection
Society’s annual Ethics4All events in December, Dr Graham Howarth looks at the key components that make
up a professional’s ethical framework.

Ethics, values and the law
Usually, you will find enough detail
in the text of the law to tell you how
you should act, or more pertinently, in
many cases, how you should not act.
There will be many other situations in
your professional and personal lives
where there is no such certainty - or, at
least, some room for doubt.
Ethics is largely about what happens
in between those areas where the
law has provided us with clarity and
definition - although many ethical
principles, such as confidentiality are
also enshrined in legislation, and in
violating them you would be acting
both illegally and unethically.
Unlike law and ethics, values have
nothing to do with legislation and
come in different shapes and sizes,
arising from various sources and in
many cases, long before you begin your
career, for example fairness, decency,
kindness, tolerance and responsibility.

Acting ethically and
behaving professionally
It is not always easy for a healthcare
professional to strike the right balance
between a caring, supportive and
patient-centred approach, and the need
to make a living and to run a profitable
busines