BACKGROUND The current direction of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy on direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of pharmaceuticals is a subject of debate. The literature addresses the benefits and drawbacks of DTCA, but the foundations for such policies have not been investigated in detail. OBJECTIVE This paper explores the most recent FDA guidance on broadcast DTCA based on a c...

This paper presents an analysis of the applicability of a principalist approach for a global, or cross-cultural, bioethics. We focus especially on the principle of individual autonomy, a core value in ethical discourse. We echo some long-standing criticisms of other anthropologists, sociologists, and many medical ethicists, that the individualistic approach to autonomy is a Euro-American value ...

The design principle of restricting local autonomy only where necessary for global robustness has led to a scalable Internet. Unfortunately, this scalability and capacity for distributed control has not been achieved in the mechanisms for specifying and enforcing security policies. The STRONGMAN system described in this paper demonstrates three new approaches to providing efficient local policy...

Principles of autonomy and self-determination have been upheld as vital to modern-day medical and ethical practice. However, the complexities of current health care and changes in the expectation of some patients and their families justify a review of such concepts. Their limitations and relativities may suggest that other descriptions of partnership and negotiated goal-setting, while based on ...

I argue that the distinction which is current in much writing on medical ethics between autonomous and non-autonomous patients cannot cope comfortably with weak-willed (incontinent) patients. I describe a case involving a patient who refuses a blood transfusion even though he or she agrees that it would be in his or her best interests. The case is discussed in the light of the treatment of auto...

In healthcare ethics, autonomy has arguably become the ‘principal principle’. As a principle that can be readily turned into a process, the giving of ‘informed consent’ by a patient has become the surrogate measure of whether medical interventions are ethically acceptable. While ‘informed consent’ processes in medical care are presumed to be robust, research confirms that most patients do not a...

What kinds of acts are right in oncology nursing practice? This basic yet complex question is commonly asked by nurses in oncology and other specialties to determine what they should do in a specific case or how the entire profession should act regarding interactions with patients, families, and colleagues. General ethical principles often are used as guides for right action. The first such con...

In this article, we use the principlist approach to identify, analyse and attempt to solve the ethical problem raised by a pregnant woman's request for cesarean delivery in absence of medical indications. We use two different types of premises: factual (facts about cesarean delivery and specifically attitudes of obstetricians as derived from the EUROBS European study) and value premises (princi...

A recent decision by several Australian State politicians to support a parliamentary review of artificial water fluoridation has an intensified debate on the public health intervention. While there is a majority agreement among Australian dentists and other health professionals that adequate enamel fluoride is essential for dental health, the ethics of artificial fluoridation of public water su...