This volume gives an overview on the currently debated ethical issues regarding advance directives from an international perspective. It focuses on a wider understanding of the known and widely accepted concept of patient self-determination for future situations. Although advance directives have been widely discussed since the 1980s, the ethical bases of advance directives still remain a matter of heated debates. The book aims to contribute to these controversial debates by integrating fundamental ethical issues on advance directives with practical matters of their implementation. Cultural, national and professional differences in how advance directives are understood by health care professions and by patients, as well as in laws and regulations, are pinpointed.

Population genomics research drawing on genetic databases has expanded rapidly, with some of this information being combined in 'biobanks'. Managing this information in an appropriate way is a highly complex ethical issue in the health policy arena. This book combines theoretical and empirical research to analyze the areas of conflict and consensus in the regulatory and ethical frameworks that have been developed to govern biobanks. Ethicists from the Department of Ethics, Trade, Human Rights and Health Law (ETH) of the World Health Organization, the Institute of Biomedical Ethics of Geneva University and the Institute of Biomedical Ethics of the University of Zurich, with the support of the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN), examine the conditions under which genetic databases can be established, kept, and made use of in an ethically acceptable way. In addition to a comprehensive review of the scientific literature and a comparative analysis of existing normative frameworks, they present the results of in-depth interviews with experts around the world concerning the most unresolved and controversial issues. The results of that study, combined with their normative analysis, leads to recommendations for a better international framework.

Population genomics research drawing on genetic databases has expanded rapidly, with some of this information being combined in 'biobanks'. Managing this information in an appropriate way is a highly complex ethical issue in the health policy arena. This book combines theoretical and empirical research to analyze the areas of conflict and consensus in the regulatory and ethical frameworks that have been developed to govern biobanks. Ethicists from the Department of Ethics, Trade, Human Rights and Health Law (ETH) of the World Health Organization, the Institute of Biomedical Ethics of Geneva University and the Institute of Biomedical Ethics of the University of Zurich, with the support of the Geneva International Academic Network (GIAN), examine the conditions under which genetic databases can be established, kept, and made use of in an ethically acceptable way. In addition to a comprehensive review of the scientific literature and a comparative analysis of existing normative frameworks, they present the results of in-depth interviews with experts around the world concerning the most unresolved and controversial issues. The results of that study, combined with their normative analysis, leads to recommendations for a better international framework.

This volume gives an overview on the currently debated ethical issues regarding advance directives from an international perspective. It focuses on a wider understanding of the known and widely accepted concept of patient self-determination for future situations. Although advance directives have been widely discussed since the 1980s, the ethical bases of advance directives still remain a matter of heated debates. The book aims to contribute to these controversial debates by integrating fundamental ethical issues on advance directives with practical matters of their implementation. Cultural, national and professional differences in how advance directives are understood by health care professions and by patients, as well as in laws and regulations, are pinpointed.

Psychotherapy is an indispensable approach in the treatment of mental disorders and, for some mental disorders, it is the most effective treatment. Yet, psychotherapy is abound with ethical issues. In psychotherapy ethics, numerous fundamental ethical issues converge, including self-determination/autonomy, decision-making capacity and freedom of choice, coercion and constraint, medical paternalism, the fine line between healthiness and illness, insight into illness and need of therapy, dignity, under- and overtreatment, and much more. The Oxford Handbook of Psychotherapy Ethics explores a whole range of ethical issues in the heterogenous field of psychotherapy thereby closing a widespread perceived gap between ethical sensitivity, technical language, and knowledge among psychotherapists. The book is intended not only for a clinical audience, but also for a philosophical/ethical audience - linking the two disciplines by fostering a productive dialogue between them, thereby enriching both the psychotherapeutic encounter and the ethical analysis and sensitivity in and outside the clinic. An essential book for psychotherapists in clinical practice, it will also be valuable for those professionals providing mental health services beyond psychology and medicine, including counsellors, social workers, nurses, and ministers.

Aufgrund des schnellen Fortschritts der Biotechnologie und der modernen Medizin werden verschiedene Berufsgruppen in unserer Gesellschaft vermehrt mit ethischen Fragestellungen konfrontiert.Antworten mussen in den meisten Fallen situationsspezifisch erfolgen. Verschiedene Beispiele werden daher im vorliegenden Werk anhand von konkreten Fallen illustriert. Verantwortlichen aus den Bereichen der Lebenswissenschaften sowie Bio- und Medizinethik dient dieses Werk nicht nur als praktisches Handbuch, sondern auch als theoretisches Nachschlagewerk. Studierende, die sich mit Fragen bezuglich Anfang und Ende des Lebens sowie den Grenzen von Forschung und medizinischer Behandlung, aber auch generell im Zusammenhang mit der Ausubung bzw. Einschrankung von Grundrechten befassen, finden hier eine wertvolle Nachschlagequelle. Ausgesuchte Loesungsansatze fur ethische und rechtliche Schwierigkeiten, mit denen Wissenschaftler und Forschende in ihrer taglichen Praxis konfrontiert sind, werden vergleichend aus der deutschen, oesterreichischen und schweizerischen Perspektive gegenubergestellt. Bestehende, die jeweilige gesellschaftliche und rechtliche Ordnung widerspiegelnde nationale Besonderheiten im Hinblick auf ethisch-moralische Wertungen, aber auch die Gesetzgebung bzw. deren Vollzug leiten den Leser dazu an, bei der Entscheidungsfindung jeden Einzelfall in seinem spezifischen Kontext zu eruieren und sich bei der Abwagung der unterschiedlichen Argumente nicht nur moralische Intuitionen, sondern auch das geltende Rechtvor Augen zu halten. Gegliedert in zwei Teile (nicht-klinische Bioethik und klinische Praxis der Medizin) zeigen die verschiedenen Falldiskussionen aus den Bereichen Forschungsethik, Ethik in den Lebenswissenschaften, Chirurgie, Intensiv- und Notfallmedizin, genetisches Screening, Allgemeinmedizin, Neurologie, Psychiatrie und innere Medizin konkrete Beruhrungspunkte von Recht und Ethik bzw. erlebte Konfliktsituationen sowie aktuell geltende rechtliche Loesungsansatze auf. Ziel des Werkes ist, zu einem besseren Verstandnis der Zusammenhange von Recht und Ethik beizutragen.

Dieser Band prasentiert einen UEberblick uber die Medizinethik. Er stellt konzeptuelle und methodische Zugange zum Fach dar und bietet Einblicke in zentrale Themenfelder. Kurze Einfuhrungen und Lekturefragen zu ausgewahlten Texten erleichtern die systematische Einordnung der verschiedenen theoretischen und praktischen Fragestellungen der Medizinethik.