Ethics in psychiatry: a framework.
Defining bioethics as the rational use of dialogue in the formulation, justification, and application of ethical principles, with the aim ofgenerating good practices in research, clinical practice, and advocacy, this paper focuses on methods for bioethical deliberation relevantto psychiatry. Stressing that bioethics fuses the two main ethical traditions in Western thought, the deontological and the teleological, thepaper emphasizes the three conditions that any intervention, if considered in the context of bioethics, should fulfil: it should be appropriateto the problem at hand, it should be good (in the sense that it does good to those who receive it but also to those who perform it),and it should be just (in the sense that its outcomes can be generalized to the whole of society). Some implications of these notions for thepractice and teaching of psychiatry are presented.
Lolas
Fernando
F
Bioethics Unit, Pan American Health Organization, 1017 Providencia, Piso 7, Santiago 750-0620, Chile.