Journal of Medical Ethics 

About: Journal of Medical Ethics is an academic journal published by BMJ. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Medical ethics & Informed consent. It has an ISSN identifier of 0306-6800. Over the lifetime, 6427 publications have been published receiving 125903 citations.

Principles of Biomedical Ethics, 5th edn.

Abstract: The Principles of Biomedical Ethics by Beauchamp and Childress is a classic in the field of medical ethics. The first edition was published in 1979 and “unleashed” the four principles of respect for autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice on the newly emerging field. These principles were argued to be mid-level principles mediating between high-level moral theory and low-level common morality, and they immediately became very popular in writings about medical ethics. Over the years Beauchamp and Childress have developed this approach and vigorously defended it against the various criticisms that have been raised. The 5th edition of this book is, as all the …

International ethical guidelines for biomedical research involving human subjects

Abstract: served and the difficulty for this reviewer is to understand how this contract is to be developed. By and large, it must be through the individual to do otherwise must be, as Hamilton points out, to change the medical ethic. Several of the participants share these doubts. Dr McWhinney, for example, points out that we must not make too much of a distinction between clinical and population competency for the latter will be applied through the former. Put another way by Sir Douglas Black: 'The ideal curriculum should recognise that population problems are aggregations of individual problems'. Moreover, while doctors must know about and understand the effect of the environment, both natural and manmade, on the distribution of ill-health, the resolution of such problems is not within the power of the medical school whose essential function, as Inui puts it, is to educate physicians. How we are educating them is another matter. It may well be that the 'humanitarian dimensions' of doctoring are being sacrificed to the rote of science and it is certain that the undergraduate medical curriculum is too crowded. Perhaps we should avoid the concept of the five or sixyear undergraduate training programme and think more in terms of a ten-year graduate curriculum. In any event, the sweeping re-orientation suggested throughout the book is probably unattainable. The major difficulty is that the majority of, at least UK, hospitals are not community-based and the graduates go out to serve disparate populations not excluding those of developing countries whose needs may be completely different. The paper by Marmot and Zwi, 'A model exercise in public health', demonstrates this only too well. Several contributors come from medical schools which claim that population-based education of the type envisaged can be achieved but one suspects that Newcastle, NSW, for example, is, by reason of geography, the classic community-based medical school. In fact, the contributions from discussants are, in many ways, more readable than the primary papers insofar as they bring us back from Utopia to Camberwell. This is a very seriously written book which is, incidentally, beautifully edited and well produced. In so far as medical ethics are founded in the medical school, it has an interest for readers of this journal but it takes a long time to make a relatively narrow point. It is essentially for educationists and community physicians who will follow the discussions with interest and benefit.

Quality of life in cancer patients--an hypothesis.

Abstract: Quality of life is a difficult concept to define and to measure. An hypothesis is proposed which suggests that the quality of life measures the difference, or the gap, at a particular period of time between the hopes and expectations of the individual and that individual's present experiences. Quality of life can only be described by the individual, and must take into account many aspects of life. The approach is goal-orientated, and one of task analysis. The hypothesis is developed in a diagramatic way, and several methods of testing the hypothesis suggested.

Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy

Abstract: Conclusions and Recommendations, are particularly interesting in view of the controversies aroused by the Warnock Report. Many of the recommendations contained here are similar to Warnock's (for example, concerning the legitimacy of AID children, the need for a licensing authority to supervise the work ofAID and IVF centres, etc), but others are at odds with the corresponding Warnock recommendations. In general, the authors place higher value on the family as an institution than did the Warnock Committee and display a much livelier awareness of the possible social dangers of the new techniques. One weakness of the book is that since its authors are approaching these topics from the standpoint of social scientists, their recommendations for legislative action which surely must be based on properly ethical considerations, not merely sociological ones seem devoid of any satisfactory rational support. For example, they concede that experimentation on human embryos is an objectionable practice, since 'the material acting as the subject of the experimentation is a human being at the beginning of its individual development' (p 178); but the practical recommendation which they make concerning this practice is disappointingly feeble:

Illness as Metaphor

Abstract: considers the role of nurses and thinks that because they are an essential part of health care, they are accountable for their activities and not merely answerable to some higher authority. That means that they must adopt a critical attitude to others involved in health care and should address their minds to issues rather than accept the views of others. The final contribution, by David Roy, states that philosophers have a responsibility to the public to develop a system of values which will serve as a guide in dealing with these biomedical issues. He feels that universal ethical standards should be developed by reference to the nature of things rather than man whose nature is subject to radical change. These essays are ofa high standard and they point emphatically to the need for an interdisciplinary approach to the issues with which they seek to grapple. They should appeal to the lay and the profession alike, but the lay person may at times wonder where he has got to, when he finds one view convincingly presented, only to find it attacked in the immediately following pages. Perhaps he should not be discouraged by this, in that none of the essayists claims that the issues have simple solutions. It is hoped that these essays and others like them will be used by students of medicine, law and philosophy to their certain advantage. D J CUSINE