ON CALL - Ethics in Neurocritical Care

INTRODUCTION:

The principles of medical ethics are well-known and repeated with the same reverence that is given to the Hippocratic Oath. Most are familiar with some components of ethical theory, be it Kant’s Categorical Imperative, a more complex utilitarian calculus that maximizes the good for all or an ethical system based on one’s personal characteristics (virtuous traits). However, it would be impractical to consider a real-time ethical quandary using a fundamental ethical system such as Kantian or Virtue or Utilitarian Theory. Nonetheless, these moral theories are the foundation for the Principles. An ethical theory more suited to medicine, and utilized by bioethicists, is the applied approach of “principlism”.