Advancing an ethical framework for long-term care.
This article represents an effort to formulate an ethical framework for long-term care with the explicit purpose of providing a catalyst to promote further discourse and expand consideration of what an ethic of long-term care might entail. Grounding the discussion, an introduction to traditional ethical philosophy is presented, focusing mainly on the fundamentals of deontological and teleological ethical theories. Attention then shifts to a review of the more frequently cited principles found in the long-term care ethics literature, followed by a critique of the current reliance upon principlism to resolve ethical dilemmas in long-term care. In response to this criticism, an agent-driven ethical framework stressing dignity and respect for personhood, drawn from the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, is advanced.
Division of Health Services Research and Policy, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota, Mayo Mail Code 197, 420 Southeast Delaware Street, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
Mary Whelan
MW
Carter
D028663:Ethical Theory; D006801:Humans; D008134:Long-Term Care / Q000941:ethics*; D026706:Paternalism; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D028662:Principle-Based Ethics; D012149:Restraint, Physical