Ethics
December 2007
The BMA has a medical ethics department which advises BMA committees on medicoethical issues and offers guidance. This information factsheet lists some of the resources available in the BMA Library or on the web.
A wide range of publications and guidance notes are available at the ethics section of the BMA web site.
Print resources
Books
The BMA library has a good collection of books and journals on medical ethics. Dictionaries are kept in the Quick Reference collection at Quick Ref 12 ETH. Books on medical ethics are classified at W 50 to W 58.
BMA. Medical ethics today 2nd ed.
BMJ Publ., 2004
BMA location: W 50
A new edition of the best resource for establishing the BMA's position on ethical issues.
Mason JK, Laurie GT.
Mason and McCall Smith's law and medical ethics. 7th ed.
Oxford Univ. P. 2006
BMA location: W 50
Medical profession and human rights: handbook for a changing agenda
Zed Books 2000
BMA location: BMA 948
BMA. Rights and responsibilities of doctors.
BMJ Publ., 1992
BMA location: BMA 663
Journals
Bulletin of Medical Ethics
Royal Society of Medicine Press, ISSN 0269-1485
Independent bulletin published 10 times a year which provides a source of news and views on a wide range of bioethical issues:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Bulletin_of_Medical_Ethics/
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
Cambridge Univ. P., ISSN: 0963-1801
Aims to serve as the international forum for the wide range of serious and urgent issues faced by members of healthcare ethics committees, physicians, nurses, social workers, clergy, lawyers and community representatives
Hastings Center Report
Hastings Center,
Essays, peer-reviewed scholarly articles, Special Supplements, and book reviews provide in-depth exploration of contemporary debates.
http://www.thehastingscenter.org/publications/publications.asp.
Available online to BMA members with an NHS Athens password here
Journal of Medical Ethics
BMJ Publishing, ISSN: 0306 6800
Main UK journal in this field which features original articles on ethical aspects of health care, as well as case conferences, book reviews, editorials, correspondence, news and notes.
http://jme.bmjjournals.com/.
Available online to BMA members with an NHS Athens password by logging on here. (6 months delay).
Journal of Medicine and Philosophy
Swets, ISSN 0360-5310
One of the oldest journals in bioethics and philosophy of medicine. Most issues are thematic.
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/03605310.asp
Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy
European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care
Kluwer, ISSN 1386-7423
Covers articles on the discipline of bioethics, and the philosophy of medicine and health care in general
http://www.springerlink.com/link.asp?id=102960
Hippocratic oath
The text of the Hippocratic oath is given in: Dorland's Medical Dictionary (Q Ref 3) and Handbook of Medical Ethics (London: BMA, 1984) pp 56 (BMA 329).
A Greek language version of the Hippocratic oath can be found in:
Jones WHS. Hippocrates. Vol 1. William Heinemann, 1923
BMA location: D 23737
Interesting articles in the BMJ include these papers although there are other letters and discussion papers in the eBMJ.
Hurwitz B, Richardson R. Swearing to care: the resurgence in medical oaths BMJ 1997;315:1671-1674 (20 December)
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/315/7123/1671
Berwick D, Hiatt H, Janeway P, Smith R. An ethical code for everybody in health care. BMJ 1997;315:1633-1634
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/315/7123/1633
Declarations
Ethical declarations are listed in:
Amnesty International. Ethical codes and declarations relevant to the medical profession 2nd ed
Amnesty International, 1984
BMA location: W 50
Boyd KM et al. New dictionary of medical ethics
British Medical Journal 1997
BMA location: BMA 819
Duncan AS et al. Dictionary of medical ethics
Darton, Longman & Todd, 1981
BMA location: Q Ref 12 ETH
End of life decisions
The eBMJ site contains nearly 250 items on end of life decisions:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/collection/end_of_life_decisions
Asylum seekers
The BMA ethics department has produced a guidance note on access to health care for asylum seekers.
The library has several reports available for loan including:
Physicians for Human Rights. Examining asylum seekers: a health professional's guide to medical and psychological evaluations of torture
Physicians for Human Rights, 2001
BMA location: W 45.4
Database resources
Useful information can be found on ethical issues in Medline and Embase which index major specialist journals in ethics, as well as ethical articles from general medical journals.
The US National Library of Medicine has incorporated their Bioethicsline into PubMed, which is searchable as a subset limit. Go to the PubMed website here http://www.pubmed.gov and click on the word 'limits' underneath the search box. From there select biethics from the 'subsets' drop down menu. Any search is then limited to the bioethics collection. Get more information about Bioethicsline here
The Medical College at Wisconsin has a specialist database:
http://www.mcw.edu/bioethics/smatic.html
Web resources
Bioethics.net
Web resource of the American Journal of Bioethics, has information on features, careers, conferences and key issues:
http://ajobonline.com/
Karolinska Institute Ethics in Biomedicine
Good links:
http://www.mic.ki.se/Diseases/k1.316.html
Kennedy Institute of Ethics
Useful links:
http://www.georgetown.edu/research/kie/
BMJ.com
Full text material on medical ethics.
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/collection
Other organisations and libraries
Centre of Medical Law and Ethics (King's College London)
Centre of Medical Law and Ethics
King's College London
Strand
London
WC2R 2LS
tel: 020 7412 7288
fax: 020 7848 2575
email: cmle.enq@kcl.ac.uk.
http://klc.ac.uk/kis/schools/law/research/cmle/index.htm
hours: Mon - Fri 9.30 am - 5.30 pm / Sat 9.30 am - 7 pm - Sun 9.30 am - 5.30 pm
access: visitors must sign the book at the issue desk
The collection is one of the largest in the country and has been built up since the foundation of the centre in 1978. Law material is presently housed in the Old Library at the Strand Campus. Over 300 journals and law report series are held, mainly in the areas of teaching and research interest.
Institute of Medicine, Law & Bioethics
University of Liverpool
Liverpool
L69 3BX
tel: 0151 794 2302
fax: 0151 794 2311
email: imlab@liv.ac.uk
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL
tel: 0161 275 7703 / 0161 275 7704
Collaborative venture between the universities of Liverpool and Manchester, with the assistance of the North West Regional Health Authority.
Nuffield Council on Bioethics
28 Bedford Square
London WC1B 3JS
tel: 020 7681 9619
fax: 020 7637 1712
email: bioethics@nuffieldfoundation.org.
http://www.nuffieldbioethics.org/home/
Independent body established by the Trustees of the Nuffield Foundation in 1991 to consider the ethical issues arising from developments in medicine and biology. The Council is funded jointly by the Nuffield Foundation, The Wellcome Trust and the Medical Research Council. It plays a major role in contributing to policy-making and stimulating debate in bioethics.