Chapter 1 Ethics, law and communication
Ethics and the law
Ethics: an introduction
Ethical practice: sources, resources and approaches
To engage with an ethical issue in clinical practice depends on:
Ethical theories and frameworks
Key ethical theories are summarized in Box 1.1.
Box 1.1
Key ethical theories
Deontology: a universally applicable rule or duty-based approach to morality, e.g. a deontologist would argue that one should always tell truth irrespective of the consequences.
Consequentialism: an approach that argues that morality is located in consequences. Such an approach will focus on likely risks and benefits.
Virtue ethics: offers an approach in which particular traits or behaviours are identified as desirable.
Rights theory: assesses morality with reference to the justified claims of others. Rights are either ‘natural’ and arise from being human, or legal, and therefore enforceable in court. Positive rights impose a duty on another to act whilst negative rights prohibit interference by others.
Narrative ethics: an approach that argues morality is embedded in the stories shared between patient and clinician and allows for multiple perspectives.
1. Autonomy: to allow ‘self-rule’, i.e. let patients make their own choices and to decide what happens to them
2. Beneficence: to do good, i.e. act in a patient’s best interests
The law
As it pertains to medicine, the law establishes boundaries for what is deemed to be acceptable professional practice. The law that applies to medicine is both national and international, e.g. the European Convention on Human Rights (Box 1.2). Within the UK, along with other jurisdictions, both statutes and common law apply to the practice of medicine (Box 1.3).
Box 1.2
European Convention on Human Rights
Substantive rights which apply to evaluating good medical practice
Prohibition of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Article 3)
Prohibition of slavery and forced labour (Article 4)
Right to liberty and security (Article 5)
Right to a fair trial (Article 6)
No punishment without law (Article 7)
Right to respect for private and family life (Article 8)
Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (Article 9)
Box 1.3
Statutes and common law
Statutes
Primary legislation made by the state, e.g. Acts of Parliament in the UK, such as the Mental Capacity Act 2005
Secondary (or delegated) legislation: supplementary law made by an authority given the power to do so by the primary legislation
Implementation (or statutory) guidance, e.g. the Mental Health Act Code of Practice
Respect for autonomy: capacity and consent
Capacity
Capacity is at the heart of ethical decision-making because it is the gateway to self-determination (Box 1.4). People are able to make choices only if they have capacity. The assessment of capacity is a significant undertaking: a patient’s freedom to choose depends on it. If a person lacks capacity, it is meaningless to seek consent. In the UK, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 sets out the criteria for assessing whether a person has the capacity to make a decision (see Ch. 23, p. 1191).
Box 1.4
Principles of self-determinationa
Every adult has the right to make his/her own decisions and to be assumed to have capacity unless proved otherwise.
Everyone should be encouraged and enabled to make his/her own decisions, or to participate as fully as possible in decision-making.
Individuals have the right to make eccentric or unwise decisions.
Proxy decisions should consider best interests, prioritizing what the patient would have wanted, and should be the ‘least restrictive of basic rights and freedoms’.
Consent
given by a patient who has capacity to make a choice about his or her care
voluntary, i.e. free from undue pressure, coercion or persuasion
continuing, i.e. patients should know that they can change their mind at any time.
The basis of informed consent
Advance decisions
based on appropriate information
specific and applicable to the situation in which it is being considered.
Best interests of patients who lack capacity
Provision or cessation of life-sustaining treatment
Based on good evidence, the team believes that further treatment will not save life
The patient is already imminently and irreversibly close to death
The patient is so permanently or irreversibly brain damaged that he or she will always be incapable of any future self-directed activity or intentional social interaction.
Assisted dying
Currently in many countries, there is no provision for lawful assisted dying. For example, physician-assisted suicide, active euthanasia and suicide pacts are all illegal in the UK. In contrast, some jurisdictions, including the Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium and certain states in the USA, permit assisted dying. However, even where assisted dying is not lawful, withholding and withdrawing treatment is usually acceptable in strictly defined circumstances, where the intention of the clinician is to minimize suffering, not to cause death. Similarly, the doctrine of double effect may apply. It enables clinicians to prescribe medication that has as its principal aim, the reduction of suffering by providing analgesic relief but which is acknowledged to have side-effects such as the depression of respiratory effort (e.g. opiates). Such prescribing is justifiable on the basis that the intention is benign and the side-effects, whilst foreseen, are not intended to be the primary aim of treatment. End-of-life care pathways, which provide for such approaches where necessary, are discussed in Chapter 10.
FURTHER READING
British Medical Association. Assisted Suicide: Guidance for Doctors in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. London: BMA; 2010.
General Medical Council. Treatment and Care Towards the End of Life. London: GMC; 2010.
IMCA. Making Decisions: The Independent Mental Capacity Advocate (IMCA) Service. London: Department of Health; 2009.
UKHL. R (Purdy) v Director of Public Prosecutions [2009] UKHL 45.
Consent and children
The patient, although under 16, can understand medical information sufficiently
The doctor cannot persuade the patient to inform, or give permission for the doctor to inform, his or her parents
In cases where a minor is seeking contraception, the patient is very likely to have sexual intercourse with or without adequate contraception
The patient’s mental or physical health (or both) are likely to suffer if treatment is not provided
It is in the patient’s best interests for the doctor to treat without parental consent.
Confidentiality
When confidentiality must or may be breached
The duty of confidence is not absolute. Sometimes, the law requires that clinicians must reveal private information about patients to others, even if they wish it were otherwise (Box 1.5). There are also circumstances in which a doctor has the discretion to share confidential information within defined terms. Such circumstances highlight the ethical tension between the rights of individuals and the public interest.
1. The patient has given consent.
2. It is in the patient’s best interests to share the information but it is impracticable or unreasonable to seek consent.