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Ethics Education and Institutional Ethics Committees

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Handbook of Bioethical Decisions. Volume II

Part of the book series: Collaborative Bioethics ((CB,volume 3))

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Abstract

Ethics consultation, which emerged at the end of the 1970s and beginning of the 1980s in the United States and gradually spread to some other countries, shoulder a crucial responsibility in clinical ethics by contributing to the quality of healthcare services through ethics consultation, case analysis, policy development, and ethics education. Institutional Ethics Committee is a type of that effort to identify, analyze, and resolve ethical issues but also used interchangeably with ethics consultation. Each function of institutional ethics committees refers to a substantial role in the therapeutic relationship. However, ethics education carries a higher potential to increase ethical knowledge, improve ethical skills, develop ethical behavior, and promote cultural competence by providing committee members, healthcare professionals, and patients and their families with continuous educational activities. Performing ethics consultation through bioethicists and other professionals having education in bioethics would help to achieve these goals and enhance the impact of bioethicists in clinical decisions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Grefenstette Center for Ethics, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Ercan Avci

  2. Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Henk ten Have

  3. Anahuac University, Naucalpan, Mexico

    Henk ten Have

Authors
  1. Ercan Avci
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  2. Henk ten Have
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Henk ten Have .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Science and Innovation in Medicine (ICIM), Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile

    Erick Valdés

  2. Institute of Science and Innovation in Medicine (ICIM), Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile

    Juan Alberto Lecaros

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Avci, E., ten Have, H. (2023). Ethics Education and Institutional Ethics Committees. In: Valdés, E., Lecaros, J.A. (eds) Handbook of Bioethical Decisions. Volume II. Collaborative Bioethics, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29455-6_21

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