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Introduction: Swiss medical law is based on a clear distinction between substantive and procedural law. Substantive law defines the material rights and duties of persons and institutions, while procedural law regulates the procedures for enforcing these rights. In addition, Swiss law distinguishes between objective law, which represents the totality of legal norms, and subjective law, which defines individual rights and powers. Private regulations such as the FMH Code of Professional Conduct or the SAMS guidelines supplement state medical law and set ethical standards. In social insurance law, the definition of illness (Art. 3 para. 1 ATSG) plays a central role, which is substantiated by case law. The interplay of legal requirements, private-law regulations and clear procedural standards ensures high-quality and legally sound medical practice in Switzerland., Competing Interests: Der Autor hat keine Interessenkonflikte im Zusammenhang mit diesem Artikel deklariert., (© 2024 Aerzteverlag medinfo AG.)

Scientific enquiry and the communication of science are essential to achieving development goals. The demand for evidence-based policy poses a challenge to maintaining the ethical conduct of science. The modern scientist faces intense competition in light of the changing nature of collaborative efforts, the quickening pace and increasing complexity of research endeavours and a growing emphasis on commercialisation of research results. Academic performance criteria continually change, becoming more demanding and increasing complex to measure. The integrity of the scientific community is challenged by cases of falsification, fabrication and plagiarism. The mass production of science outputs, evidenced by the incredible rise of predatory journals, poses risks for the veracity of science. Yet, scientists are not the only ones driven by performance targets. Under the constant scrutiny of governing boards, research and development funders-both public and private-are increasingly pressed to demonstrate outputs, outcomes and impact. There is an urgent need for independent research but also a need for consensus with regard to policy guidance. Consensus studies expect scientists to make sense of the available science and find a way of presenting the controversies, contradictions and convergence of evidence to guide policy decisions. Policy consensus dialogues can valorise science guidance. These practices adopt multidisciplinary approaches, bringing top-rated scientists from a variety of disciplines around the table to contribute best practice examples, share experiences and lessons learnt against the background of solid critique of existing research., (© 2020. Akadémiai Kiadó Zrt.)

Summarizing the contents of the Italian Constitutional Court's judgment n. 242/2019 on the non-liability in medical-assisted suicide, the author looks at how the new scenarios thus opened might undermine the safety and dignity of the most fragile and vulnerable people. He voices his concerns on the shifting relationship between doctors and patients and on the delegitimization of medical ethics that must instead continue to illuminate, with its guiding principles, professional behavior., (Copyright by Società Italiana di Nefrologia SIN, Rome, Italy.)

Deontology is the set of duties and obligations in which the correct act is specified in the exercise of a profession. The Deontological Codes (CD), in addition to respecting the legal framework in which they are inserted, must go beyond the laws insofar as they are a reflection of the ethical commitment of each profession; commitment to deontological principles, which also helps to shape your identity. The aim of this project is to provide, based on the bibliography and current legal and deontological regulations, a proposal to serve as a guide for the accomplishment of Ethic Codes for Biologists (CDB), which currently does not exist in Spain, taking as a basis the revision of the ethics codes of other professions related to Biology. Under this purpose, a systematic and comparative review has been carried out of other health professions ethics codes, of the ethical guidelines emanating from scientific societies (above all, from the Anglo-Saxon area) and of the regulations applicable to those professions. The result is the proposal of the most important sections that we believe this Code should contain.

Advances in science and technology have far-reaching potential for implementation in health care and must be considered from an ethics perspective. Physicians conducting research on such technologies must consider their duties to subjects and patients. The AMA Code of Medical Ethics offers guidance on research conduct and best practices for using innovation patents., (© 2019 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.)

The French decree of 25 November 2016 relating to the code of ethics for nurses reinforces the principles guiding their missions and the corresponding responsibilities. It is the fruit of a collaboration between nurses from all backgrounds heavily involved in the Order. Imbued with the nursing spirit, reflecting the sensitivities and concerns of professionals, it is a unique project and, in every regard, quite remarkable, as it has been produced by a profession which is often reluctant to put pen to paper to express its vision of health., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.)

This paper gives insight into the Islamic bioethical discussion on harvesting and using human embryonic (hESC) and adult stem cells. It describes some of the Islamic legal mechanisms involved in the bioethical discourse among Muslims. As the contemporary Islamic bioethical discourse is very diverse, the paper focuses on the critical discussion of related resolutions of the Saudi-based Islamic Fiqh Academy due to the esteem in which the IFA is held in the Islamic world and the pertinence of their rulings on this issue. This study discusses the different sources of human adult and embryonic stem cells and their use from an Islamic perspective, while questioning some directions the Islamic bioethical discourse has taken. The paper invites interested parties to deliberate the use of some of the legal means resorted to in the ongoing Islamic bioethical discourse.

The feasibility of a common European code of medical ethics is discussed, with consideration and evaluation of the difficulties such a project is going to face, from both the legal and ethical points of view. On the one hand, the analysis will underline the limits of a common European code of medical ethics as an instrument for harmonising national professional rules in the European context; on the other hand, we will highlight some of the potentials of this project, which could be increased and strengthened through a proper rulemaking process and through adequate and careful choice of content. We will also stress specific elements and devices that should be taken into consideration during the establishment of the code, from both procedural and content perspectives. Regarding methodological issues, the limits and potentialities of a common European code of medical ethics will be analysed from an ethical point of view and then from a legal perspective. The aim of this paper is to clarify the framework for the potential but controversial role of the code in the European context, showing the difficulties in enforcing and harmonising national ethical rules into a European code of medical ethics., (Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.)

Since abortion became legal nationwide, federal and state "conscience clauses" have been established to define the context in which health professionals may decline to participate in contested services. Patients and health care providers may act according to conscience in making health care decisions and in deciding whether to abstain from or to participate in contested services. Historically, however, conscience clauses largely have equated conscience in health care with provider abstinence from such services. We propose a framework to analyze the ethical implications of conscience laws. There is a rich literature on the exercise of conscience in the clinical encounter. This essay addresses the need to ensure that policy, too, is grounded in an ethical framework. We argue that the ideal law meets three standards: it protects patients' exercise of conscience, it safeguards health care providers' rights of conscience, and it does not contradict standards of ethical conduct established by professional societies. We have chosen Illinois as a test of our framework because it has one of the nation's broadest conscience clauses and because an amendment to ensure that women receive consistent access to contested services has just passed in the state legislature. Without such an amendment, Illinois law fails all three standards of our framework. If signed by the governor, the amended law will provide protections for patients' positive claims of conscience. We recommend further protections for providers' positive claims as well. Enacting such changes would offer a model for how ethics-based analysis could be applied to similar policies nationwide.

The worldwide emergence of antibiotic resistances and the drying up of the antibiotic pipeline have spurred a search for alternative or complementary antibacterial therapies. Bacteriophages are bacterial viruses that have been used for almost a century to combat bacterial infections, particularly in Poland and the former Soviet Union. The antibiotic crisis has triggered a renewed clinical and agricultural interest in bacteriophages. This, combined with new scientific insights, has pushed bacteriophages to the forefront of the search for new approaches to fighting bacterial infections. But before bacteriophage therapy can be introduced into clinical practice in the European Union, several challenges must be overcome. One of these is the conceptualization and classification of bacteriophage therapy itself and the extent to which it constitutes a human medicinal product regulated under the European Human Code for Medicines (Directive 2001/83/EC). Can therapeutic products containing natural bacteriophages be categorized under the current European regulatory framework, or should this framework be adapted? Various actors in the field have discussed the need for an adapted (or entirely new) regulatory framework for the reintroduction of bacteriophage therapy in Europe. This led to the identification of several characteristics specific to natural bacteriophages that should be taken into consideration by regulators when evaluating bacteriophage therapy. One important consideration is whether bacteriophage therapy development occurs on an industrial scale or a hospital-based, patient-specific scale. More suitable regulatory standards may create opportunities to improve insights into this promising therapeutic approach. In light of this, we argue for the creation of a new, dedicated European regulatory framework for bacteriophage therapy.

Mental health professionals who provide emergency psychosocial assistance in the immediate aftermath of disasters do so in the midst of crisis and chaos. Common roles undertaken by disaster mental health professionals include treating existing conditions of disaster survivors and providing psychosocial support to front line responders and those acutely affected. Other roles include participating in multidisciplinary health care teams as well as monitoring and supporting team members' mental health. When, in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, mental health professionals provide such assistance, they may take on legal and ethical responsibilities that they are not fully aware of or do not fully comprehend. Unfortunately, not much has been written about these obligations, and professional organizations have provided little guidance. Thus, the purpose of the present article is to outline and discuss an analysis framework and suggest recommendations that mental health professionals can use to help guide their actions during the chaos immediate post disaster.

Patient autonomy is affected by a number of factors, including severity of illness, socio-economic status and dependence. Many patients find that they are not treated with due consideration and compassion, and also have no control over their own care.

John Tingle, Linda Gibson and Maria Ferrante discuss a new framework for the patient safety agenda.

From time to time, the Council on Ethics and Judicial Affairs must investigate and act on the alleged unethical behavior of Texas Dental Association members. Because the alleged behavior is directed at a colleague and TDA member, the work of the council is neither comfortable nor inviting. Nonetheless, council decisions are made taking into account its mission to investigate the allegation between the parties and to improve dental ethics in the state.

Dating back to ancient times, mankind has been absorbed with 'doing the right thing', that is, behaving in ways approved by the society and the culture during the era in which they lived. This has been and still is especially true for the medical and related health-care professions. Laws and professional codes have evolved over the years that provide guidelines as to how physicians should treat patients, beginning with the one authored by Hippocrates. Only more recently, however, have laws and codes been created to cover health-care research and the advances in health-care practice that have been brought to light by that research. Although these discoveries have clearly impacted the quality of life and duration of life for people with spinal cord injury and other maladies, they have also raised questions that go beyond the science. Questions such as when, why, how and for how long should such treatments be applied often relate more to what a society and its culture will condone and the answers can differ and have differed among societies depending on the prevailing ethics and morals. Modern codes and laws have been created so that the trust people have traditionally placed in their healers will not be violated or misused as happened during wars past, especially in Nazi Germany. This paper will trace the evolution of the rules that medical researchers, practitioners and payers for treatment must now follow and explain why guiding all their efforts that honesty must prevail.

Although patient rights is a concept that all nurse managers need to be aware of, this concept often becomes confusing when applied to patients undergoing psychiatric treatment. It is important for the nurse manager to understand the basic rights that psychiatric patients are entitled to, to best be able to help staff nurses under his/her supervision to protect these rights. The nurse manager on a psychiatric unit often serves as a reference for staff nurses, and even for physicians, when questions regarding patient rights present themselves. The nurse manager should be certain to discuss these issues with the facility's legal and risk management team to be aware of particulars of the law of the state in which the facility is located, as state laws may differ somewhat in their treatment of psychiatric patients.

In 2009, the Health and Disability Commissioner considered whether a right to be treated with compassion should be added to New Zealand's Code of Health and Disability Services Consumers' Rights. Before making his recommendation, the Commissioner explored the nature of compassion, its place as a virtue in medicine, and the implications of the proposed law change.

This study assessed the knowledge and perception of human biological materials (HBM) and biorepositories among three study groups in South Korea. The relationship between the knowledge and the perception among different groups was also examined by using factor and regression analyses. In a self-reporting survey of 440 respondents, the expert group was found more likely to be knowledgeable and positively perceived than the others. Four factors emerged: Sale and Consent, Flexible Use, Self-Confidence, and Korean Bioethics and Biosafety Action restriction perception. The results indicate that those who are well aware of the existence of biobanks were more positively inclined to receive the Sale and Consent perception. As a result of the need for high quality HBMs and the use of appropriate sampling procedures for every aspect of the collection and use process, the biorepository community should pay attention to ethical, legal, and policy issues.

Pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers contract with thousands of physicians each year, and struggle to comply with the Fair Market Value requirements of the Anti-Kickback Statute's "personal services" safe harbor. Consultant arrangements between physicians and manufactures have come under increasing scrutiny by regulators. In 2007, the five leading Hip & Knee manufacturers entered into settlement agreements related to their contract practices with physician consultants. Government sources do not provide guidance for calculating Fair Market Value; however, this article recommends four principles to use when evaluating Fair Market Value methodologies.

Traditionally medical devices companies manage business compliance with anti-corruption and anti-fraud rules in a document-oriented way that does not always yield optimal results for the company. As a result, compliance issues are not optimally managed by the companies. Now that medical devices companies become ever more internationally active, they must also take into account the international dimensions of business compliance. This article intends to provide U.S. medical devices companies with activities in Europe with an insight in business compliance risks in the European Union (EU) and the risks related to U.S. statutes that may be applicable to a U.S. company's activities overseas. The article proposes a process-oriented and IT-supported way of structuring an international business compliance program, resulting in increased effectiveness of the program and increased competitiveness and risk management of the company as well as a high degree of acceptance of the procedures by the company's employees.

Background: In the dynamic context of occupational medicine an increasing number of occupational health problems requires a high-quality standard practice supported by decisions consistent both with ethics and legislation., Objectives: This paper examines the relationship between legal requirements, ethical values and scientific evidence issues in occupational health practice., Results: i) Legal requirements. Italian law states that practice must be evidence-based and comply with the code of ethics for occupational health professionals of the ICOH. ii) Ethical values. The code itself emphasizes that practice should be relevant, knowledge-based, sound and appropriate to occupational risks. Furthermore, the objectives and methods of health surveillance and biological monitoring must be clearly defined and indicator must be chosen according to their relevance and predictive value. Any dilemma arising from the practice should be dealt with according to the ethical principles of health benefit, independence and justice. iii) Scientific evidence. Both the law and the code of ethics require that practice be based on available evidence., Conclusions: Decisions made on the basis of a comprehensive process founded on scientific evidence should result in effective and high-quality outcomes that respect both the law and the rights of individuals and society.

Human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-based cell therapy depends on access to surplus embryos from IVF cycles and collaborative interactions between biomedical researchers and reproductive medicine professionals. It is becoming instrumental to achieve an international consensus about the standards that should regulate the manipulation of human embryonic tissue in two distinct settings: reproductive medicine and embryonic stem cell research. Within hESC research, the regulatory framework needs to be adjusted according to the actual expectations and potential detrimental consequences of hESC research.