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Medical ethics today

The BMA's handbook of ethics and law
2004

(Note: 2007 updates now available in pdf format)

The second edition of Medical ethics today is now available.

The new book, totalling 21 chapters, more than 800 pages and incorporating a fully searchable CD-rom, is the result of two years' work by the Medical Ethics Committee and the ethics secretariat.

Like its predecessor, it provides practical advice on day-to-day ethical issues as well as addressing some of the more unusual and complex dilemmas that arise both in terms of individual doctors' enquiries and in the BMA's role in influencing public policy.

The book has been updated and expanded considerably to include more information about the law and legal cases, as well as new areas for ethical discourse.

During its preparation, particular attention has been paid to the needs of medical students as well as practising doctors.

The book begins with an introductory chapter "Bridging the gap between theory and practice: the BMA's approach to medical ethics" which sets out the context within which the BMA's more specific guidance and advice, given in the chapters that follow, can be applied.

It discusses what is meant by medical ethics and how this has changed over time. It also gives very practical guidance on how to approach an ethical dilemma, draws attention to the interaction between ethics and law, and highlights the importance of doctors being familiar with both legal and professional guidance.

Twenty one chapters follow:

1. The doctor-patient relationship
2. Consent and refusal: competent adults
3. Treatment without consent: incapacitated adults and compulsory treatment
4. Consent and refusal: children and young people
5. Confidentiality
6. Health records
7. Contraception, abortion and birth
8. Assisted reproduction
9. Genetics
10. Caring for patients at the end of life
11. Euthanasia and physician assisted suicide
12. Responsibilities after a patient's death
13. Prescribing and administering medication
14. Research and innovative treatment
15. Emergency care
16. Doctors with dual obligations
17. Doctors working in custodial settings
18. Education and training
19. Multi-disciplinary teams and relations with colleagues
20. Public health dimensions of medical practice
21. Reducing risk, clinical error and poor performance

Medical Ethics Today is available from the Hammicks BMA Medical Bookshop.