Ethical Issues in Anaesthesia

There are more personal injury claims against anaesthetists than in any other medical speciality and anaesthetists face many dilemmas which have to be reconciled with their professional and personal ethics. This book discusses issues such as the treatment of HIV patients and religious groups.

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Different envrionements produce different problems in practice and this volume addresses them from the point of view of those working in the operating theatre, intensive care unit, pain clinic, obstetrics and private practice. Likewise, different patients raise different cosniderations: those who are HIV positive, children, Jehovah's Witnesses, mentally disabled or terminally ill challenge routine responses and demand even greater expertise that other patients. Contributors from around the world offer their own arguments which can challenge the reader's personal ethical stance on these diverse issues. Good practice reflects what is ethically good as well as what is clinically sound but reaching the balance is rarely easy. This book focuses attention on the difficulties of balancing these apsects. It is provocative and challenging reading for those who aspire to be fully professional physician practitioners and also extremely useufl to students who have a specific or general interest in health care ethics.