BACKGROUND The moral hazards and poor public image of the insurance industry, arising from insurance agents' unethical behavior, affect both the normal operation of an insurance company and decrease applicants' confidence in the company. Contrarily, these scandals may demonstrate that the organizations were "bad barrels" in which insurance agents' unethical decisions were supported or encourage...

This study compares the explanatory power of Martin Fishbein's and Icek Ajzen's theory of reasoned action, Icek Ajzen's theory of planned behavior, and a modified version of the theory of planned behavior, which includes a measure of moral obligation, to predict insurance agents' ethical intentions towards their clients. Two hundred and forty-five insurance agents in the U.S. were surveyed, wit...

Evaluating the practice of ethical review by Research Ethics Committees (REC) could help protect the interests of human participants and promote scientific progress. To facilitate such evaluations, we conducted an ethnographic study of how an REC reviews research proposals during its meetings. We observed 13 meetings of a Dutch REC and studied REC documents. We coded this material inductively a...

Ethics committees are the most important practical instrument of clinical ethics in Belgium and fulfil three tasks: the ethical review of experimental protocols, advising on the ethical aspects of healthcare practice, and ethics consultation. In this article the authors examine the current situation of ethics committees in Belgium from the perspective of clinical ethics. Firstly, the most impor...

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An unusual number of featured articles in our newspapers have included discussions about ethics or ethical behavior, most often, the stories concern ethical violations or unethical behavior. Think of all those corporate CEOs and financial advisors, not to mention our government officials, for instance, Anthony Williams, mayor of the District of Columbia, and Senator Robert G. Torricelli. Unfort...

BACKGROUND It is the responsibility of each occupational therapist to always act ethically and professionally in a clinical setting. However, there is little information available concerning the factors influencing ethical behavior of occupational therapists at work. Since no study has been conducted in Iran on this topic, this qualitative study aimed to identify the factors influencing ethical...

In this article, we examine and discuss the current situation for noncommercial clinical trials in Europe—two years after a new legal framework entered into force. The Clinical Trials Directive, issued in 2001 [1], sought to regulate clinical research in a uniform way across Europe. The basic aims underpinning its development were to cut red tape, speed up research and development, enhance the ...