Main description:

Every accredited American hospital is required to have a mechanism for handling ethical concerns; most hospitals satisfy this requirement by constituting an institutional healthcare ethics committee (HEC), a pattern which is repeated in most western countries. This text provides definitive, comprehensive guidance for members of healthcare ethics committees who find themselves confronted with ethically challenging situations. Each chapter includes learning objectives, clinical case studies and questions to stimulate discussion among committee members. Particular emphasis is given to consultation, as this often presents the greatest challenges to committee members. Each chapter stands alone as a teaching module, as well as forming part of a comprehensive volume. Written and edited by nationally and internationally recognized experts in bioethics, this is essential reading for every member of a healthcare ethics committee.

Contents:

Preface; Part I. The Context of Healthcare Ethics Committee Work: 1. Introduction to healthcare ethics committees D. Micah Hester and Toby Schonfeld; 2. Brief introduction to ethics and ethical theory D. Micah Hester and Toby Schonfeld; 3. Ethics committees and the law Stephen Latham; 4. Cultural and religious issues in health care Alissa Swota; Part II. Consultation: 5. Mission, vision, goals: defining the parameters of the ethics consultation Marty Smith; 6. Ethics consultation process Jeffrey Spike; 7. Informed consent, shared decision making, and the ethics committee Randall Horton and Howard Brody; 8. Decision-making capacity Art Derse; 9. Family dynamics and surrogate decision making Lisa Soleymani Lehmann; 10. Confidentiality Toby Schonfeld; 11. Advance care planning and end-of-life decision making Nancy M. P. King and John Moskop; 12. Medical futility Thaddeus Mason Pope; 13. Ethical issues in reproduction Anne Drapkin Lyerly; 14. Ethical issues in neonatology John Lantos; 15. Ethical issues in pediatrics D. Micah Hester; Part III. Policy Development and Organizational Issues: 16. Ethics committees and distributive justice Nancy Jecker; 17. Developing effective ethics policy Anne Lederman Flamm; 18. Implementing policy to the wider community Mary Faith Marshall and Joan Liaschenko; 19. Ethics in and for the organization Mary Rorty; Part IV. Educating Others: 20. The healthcare ethics committee as educator Kathy Kinlaw; 21. Education as prevention Kayhan Parsi; 22. Understanding ethics pedagogy Felicia Cohn; Index.