title: [Ethics, empiricism and uncertainty].
abstract: Accidents can lead to difficult boundary situations. Such situations often take place in the emergency units. The medical team thus often and inevitably faces professional uncertainty in their decision-making. It is essential to communicate these uncertainties within the medical team, instead of downplaying or overriding existential hurdles in decision-making. Acknowledging uncertainties might lead to alert and prudent decisions. Thus uncertainty can have ethical value in treatment or withdrawal of treatment. It does not need to be covered in evidence-based arguments, especially as some singular situations of individual tragedies cannot be grasped in terms of evidence-based medicine.
authors.affiliation: Universitäres Notfallzentrum - Department Anästhesie, Notfall- , Intensivmedizin Inselspital Bern - Universitätsspital, 3008 Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Porz
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zimmermann
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Exadaktylos
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D004630:Emergencies; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D012106:Research / Q000592:standards*; D035501:Uncertainty