(A Consensus
Statement from Biomedical Ethicists in Support of Environmentally
Sound Healthcare Practices)
A Consensus Statement from Biomedical Ethicists in Support of
Environmentally Sound Healthcare Practices
(Note: This consensus statement appeared in somewhat differing
format as an editorial in the Western
Journal
of
Medicine
2001;175 [October 2001]. The full text and list of
cosigners is published here for the first time.)
Bioethics is the formal discipline concerned with ethical and
broader issues arising in the practice of medicine and the other
healthcare professions and science as a whole. Bioethicists are
concerned not only with the impacts and quandaries faced by
individual patients and their caregivers, but the impacts of
healthcare on society and the broader natural world. Although
bioethicists approach such issues from many different theoretical
perspectives, most if not all agree that the healthcare professions
and industry should seek to minimize any real or potential health
risks associated with providing healthcare.
