Clinical Ethics and Philosophy

Dear Colleagues,

Clinical ethics is being increasingly recognized as a necessary component of healthcare. However, there are still several unanswered questions that have been nourishing a lively debate for many years.

This Special Issue intends to deepen the philosophical matters related to clinical ethics, verifying if and how there has been an evolution, which are the points of convergence, and which disagreements remain.

We will pay attention to the Ethics Committee, a privileged agent of clinical ethics, analyzing the main philosophical issues related to its management.

We will investigate the philosophical assumptions regarding the clinical ethics method and one of its priority tasks, the clinical ethics consultation.

In this Special Issue, we will explore the following topics:

1. The philosophical foundations of clinical ethics

• What are the links and differences between bioethics and clinical ethics?
• Does clinical ethics have different philosophical assumptions to bioethics?
• Is clinical ethics a philosophical or medical discipline?
• What are the purposes of clinical ethics?
• Is a bioethics expert also an expert in clinical ethics?
• What are the philosophical foundations of clinical ethics?
• Is an ethical theory necessary for clinical ethics?
• Is interdisciplinarity a constitutive element of clinical ethics?

2. The historical evolution of clinical ethics

• Has the concept of clinical ethics evolved?
• How has practice been driving the change of clinical ethics and its meaning?
• In clinical ethics, are guidelines useful or do they limit the analysis and discussion of the single case?

3. The places of clinical ethics

• What is the role of the Ethics Committee? Is the Ethics Committee’s function only advisory?
• Should the Ethics Committee give practical indications or only present the possible perspectives?
• To represent the different ethical positions, is a single ethics advisor sufficient or do we need a team of several experts?
• What philosophical training is required to serve on an Ethics Committee?
• Clinical ethics and public engagement: wishful thinking or a way forward?
• Significant experiences in these areas.

4. The method in clinical ethics

• What method should we recommend for clinical ethics?
• Is there a preferable method for clinical ethics or can multiple methods coexist?
• If there are different methods, can clinical ethics be considered a medical discipline?

5. Clinical ethics consultation as the primary task of clinical ethics

• What does ethics consultation mean?
• Can we talk of an expert in ethics?
• What is the most appropriate approach to clinical ethics consultation? What is its philosophical basis?
• Can/should the ethics consultant be neutral?
• Presentation and discussion of case studies illustrating these aspects.

Prof. Dr. Mario Picozzi
Prof. Dr. Fabrizio Turoldo
Guest Editors

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