Includes bibliographical references and index.

Ethics as a discipline: Questions to keep in mind while reading this chapter; Ethical theories and their relevance to health care; Ethical principles in health care; Conflict among deontological principles and their derivative rights and duties; Other ethical theories; The structure of ethical justification -- Codes of ethics and the medical profession: The current CMA code; The ethical status of codes of ethics; A model code of ethics for physicians; Withdrawal of service: Physicians, the medical profession and society -- The health care professional-patient relationship: Questions to keep in mind while reading this chapter; Models of physician-patient relationships; Discussion; Emerging issues -- Informed consent: Patients and their medical records; Informed consent; Standards of disclosure; Standards of comprehension; Age and consent; Patient delegation of consent; Informed consent: Some considerations of practice; Types of consent; Factors affecting freedom of consent; Exceptions to informed consent -- Substitute decision-making: What constitutes competence?; Who should function as substitute decision-maker?; What values should a substitute decision-maker use? -- Research using human subjects: Experimentation: Some preliminary issues; The design of clinical trials; Consent in experimentation; The tri-council guidelines and consent in the research setting; Reward and enticement; Consent and collectivities; The role of pharmaceutical companies -- The ethics of deliberate death: The concept of death; Deliberate death; The morality of euthanasia: Arguments contra; The morality of euthanasia: Arguments pro; Assisted suicide; Euthanasia and brain death; Voluntary versus non-voluntary euthanasia -- Abortion: Framing the abortion issue: Some introductory considerations; Fetal rights; The ethical relevance of methods of abortion; Arguments for against abortion -- Health, health care and social justice: The definition of "health"; Right to health care; Health care as a right versus health care as a commodity; The canada health act (CHA) -- Resource allocation: Overall health care budgets within a socialized context; Macro-allocation; Special non-medically defined groups; Micro-allocation; Two final notes on allocation -- Reproductive ethics and the right to have children: Some legal and historical considerations; Some preliminary ethical considerations; Some arguments and their analysis; Is there a right to have children?; Commercial surrogate motherhood and related issues; Sex selection; Post-menopausal motherhood -- Biotechnology: Ectogenesis; Human cloning; Genetic testing and genetic information; Genetic engineering.