Abstract
This chapter aims to provide a review of the state of the art of the ethical consultation services. In particular, we present a map of the most important traditions, discussing the different conceptions and the different roles they give to the counsellors. Then, we show the place of our ethical counselling methodology within this scenario.
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Notes
- 1.
We use ‘ethics consultation’ as a general term covering all different types of ethics support services, which can be offered to patients and clinicians.
- 2.
These predecessor organizations were the Society for Health and Human Values (SHHV), the Society for Bioethics Consultation (SBC) and the American Association of Bioethics (AAB).
- 3.
“Health care ethics is an umbrella term that encompasses several ethics ‘subspecialties’ such as organizational ethics, clinical ethics, professional ethics, business ethics, education ethics, and research ethics. These subspecialties overlap, and ethics consultations often involve more than one subspecialty. For example, clinical ethics, organizational ethics, and professional ethics may be involved in a consultation where a physician-in-training must learn when, and how, to disclose a medical error to a patient” (Tarzan 2013, 4–5).
- 4.
Namely autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice which constitute mid-level ethical theory referred to as Principlism (see Beauchamp and Childress 2013).
- 5.
The guide specifying further questions and offering further guidance for ethics consultants can be found at http://www.ethics.va.gov/integratedethics/.
- 6.
It was introduced by a German philosopher, G. Achenbach, who, in 1984, published a book containing some lectures he gave on what he defined as a new way of doing philosophy, according to which philosophy has to be interpreted as a practical tool to cope with life and its difficulties (Achenbach 1984).
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Linkeviciute, A., Sanchini, V. (2016). Ethics Consultation Services: The Scenario. In: Boniolo, G., Sanchini, V. (eds) Ethical Counselling and Medical Decision-Making in the Era of Personalised Medicine. SpringerBriefs in Applied Sciences and Technology(). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27690-8_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27690-8_1
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