title: Virtue ethics - an old answer to a new dilemma? Part 1. Problems with contemporary medical ethics.
abstract: The commonest practical model used in contemporary medical ethics is Principlism. Yet, while Principlism is a widely accepted consensus statement for ethics, the moral theory that underpins it faces serious challenges in its attempt to provide a coherent and accepted system of moral analysis. This inevitably challenges the stability of such a consensus statement and makes it vulnerable to attack by competitors such as preference consequentialism. This two-part paper proposes an inclusive version of virtue theory as a more grounded system of moral analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Bahrain, P O Box 15503, Adliya, Bahrain dmisselbrook@rcsi-mub.com.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Misselbrook
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D026688:Bioethical Issues; D028663:Ethical Theory; D006801:Humans; D028681:Moral Obligations; D009014:Morals; D010686:Philosophy, Medical; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations / Q000941:ethics*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000941:ethics; D028662:Principle-Based Ethics; D028722:Virtues
keywords: ethical analysis; ethics; morals; virtues