Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:The Culture of Health Care
Unit:Ethics and Professionalism
Lecture:Ethical and legal standards
Slide content:Ethical Standards and Legal Standards Sometimes they are the same Example: Both law and ethics prohibit harmful surgery on a healthy patient Sometimes they overlap or interact Example of overlap: State and federal laws set standards for the practice of medicine Example of interaction: Failure to meet professional standards can create legal liability (malpractice case) Sometimes they conflict Example: Court orders disclosure of patient information 4
Slide notes:This lecture discusses ethical and legal standards and how they interact. People in the medical profession are required to meet both ethical standards and legal standards. Sometimes these standards are one and the same. For example, it would be both an ethical violation and a crime to perform disabling surgery on a healthy person. Sometimes, ethical standards and legal standards overlap or interact, and they are subject to interpretation by both legal authorities and professional oversight committees. In other cases, ethical and legal standards may conflict. For example, even though a physician has an ethical duty to maintain patient confidentiality, a court may order the release of a patients medical records for use in a lawsuit. In recent decades, two new academic fieldsbioethics and health and human rights have begun addressing ethical issues in medicine. Bioethics is the study of the ethical and moral implications of medical advances, research, and practice at the intersection of the law and the human rights of the patient. Examples include genetic engineering and drug research. Health and human rights examines a vast array of ethical concerns around such issues as health care inequities, vulnerable populations, reproductive and sexual health, death and dying, and more. 4