Should we always give patients the treatments they want? Ethical reasoning with Prof. Clare Delany

This podcast episode discusses what ethics is in the context of healthcare practice, including the ethical principles of autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence and justice.
The interaction and occasional tension between evidence-based practice and ethics-based practice and how ethics can help settle clashes between research evidence, patient values and clinician judgement and experience. Topics include:

• what ethical reasoning is and the processes involved in making moral judgements
• how it feels to identify an ethical problem which is often intuitive
• ethical reasoning when the consequences or stakes are high
• communicating risk to patients prior to treatment
• some case examples, including patients requesting seemingly ineffective treatments or treatments which the clinician may feel is potentially harmful or not in the patient’s best interest
• how the ethical principles should apply to all healthcare settings, whether public or private, but in reality there are differences on how these principles are interpreted and applied in these respective settings
• how ethical reasoning motivates us to be aware of our own assumptions and of the assumptions and values of others which enriches our clinical work and also the therapeutic bond with our patients