title: How Can We Practice Ethical Medicine When the Evidence Is Always Changing?
abstract: The practice of ethical medicine requires that the clinician offers interventions that are likely to help (beneficence), avoid interventions that are likely to harm (nonmaleficence), and allow for autonomous decision making. Our determination of what is in the best interest of the patient is dependent on the state of medical evidence at the time. However, as evidence evolves, the balance of beneficence and nonmaleficence may change, even to the extent of a complete reversal. In this article, I explore the issues of autonomy, particularly parental autonomy for a child, in a world in which the evidence is always changing.
authors: Ohio State University, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, OH, USA garey.noritz@nationwidechildrens.org.
authors: Garey
authors: G
authors: Noritz
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003657:Decision Making; D004992:Ethics, Medical; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000941:ethics*; D006801:Humans; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000941:ethics*; D026684:Personal Autonomy; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics
keywords: end-of-life care; ethics; evidenced based medicine; pediatrics; professionalism