Overview of psychiatric ethics II: Virtue ethics and the ethics of care.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this paper is to consider the components of two moral theories--the ethics of virtue and the ethics of care--and their relationship to psychiatry.


CONCLUSIONS
Although both theories reflect fundamentally desirable human qualities, neither provides a comprehensive account of psychiatric ethics. We are therefore drawn to a similar conclusion as those of Hare (1993) and Bloch and Green (2006), in that these theories offer a complementary approach to other ethical theories in psychiatry.
Robertson
Michael
M
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Sydney South West Area Health Service (Eastern Sector), Sydney, NSW, Australia. mrobertson@med.usyd.edu.au
Walter
Garry
G
D004995:Ethics, Professional; D006801:Humans; D005791:Patient Care / Q000941:ethics*; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000941:ethics*; D012945:Social Values