title: Six-step framework for ethical decision making.
abstract: The expectation, from the ethos of medicine and society, is that a practitioner should make the correct ethical decision in the clinical setting. Yet there is little help for them as to a process for making ethical decisions. A structured six-step framework may assist. It is not an algorithm to arrive at a determinate answer in all situations and ethical issues but instead offers a process that indicates the most relevant information and biomedical considerations a practitioner needs to be aware of and helps to make ethics issues more manageable. The issues practitioners face are complex and resistant to reduction; it is hubris to pretend otherwise. Yet, the difficulty of these issues warrants practitioners relying on a framework to guide them in the process of making ethical decisions.
authors: Clinical Ethics Fellow, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Texas, USA.
authors: Gavin
authors: G
authors: Enck
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making / Q000941:ethics*; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D006801:Humans; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010820:Physicians / Q000941:ethics
keywords: Patient-Reported Outcome Measure (PROM); decision aids; decision quality; patient-centered care