Ethics
What this Program does…
What is meant by “Ethics” in Health Care?
Patients, their families and health care providers are, from time to time, faced with difficult choices regarding medical treatments involving moral values, beliefs, traditions and preferences.
Ethics in health care is the rational examination of what constitutes ‘right’ and ‘wrong,’ the human, legal and moral rights that we have, and the associated duties and obligations that health care professional have to their patients. In particular, to always provide their patients with optimal care and treatments using the least intrusive means, and to ensure that patients are always treated with respect and dignity
Some examples of ethical dilemmas include:
- When should life-sustaining treatments like breathing machines or feeding tubes be started, continued or stopped?
- What should family members and health care professionals do if a patient refuses treatment that promises to be medically helpful? Do patients have a right to make ‘bad’ choices?
- Who should make health care decisions for patients when they are unable to communicate or decide for themselves? What is the basis for these difficult decisions?
- Should an "at risk" patient be allowed to go home if they want to? What if harms befell them upon their return home?
The Bioethics Program does/completes the following:
- Provides 24/7 Ethics Consultation Support and Services to our patients, their families, staff, physicians, students and volunteers. (These consultations are typically confidential unless disclosure is required by law).
- Hosts the Ethics Advisory Committee for St Joseph’s Healthcare System
- Assists with the review and development of policies and guidelines with a significant ethical dimension
- Participates in the rigorous review of research protocols
- Provides Ethics Grand Rounds every two months
- Offers case-based learning opportunities on a wide variety of units
- Offers regular proactive ‘ethics debrief’ sessions for staff, physicians, students and volunteers
How this Program helps…
This program offers guidance and support 24/7 to patients, families, staff, physicians, students, volunteers and the organization to navigate through making difficult decisions in situations where there are no easy solutions or answers. It helps to build ethics capacity and integration at all levels of the organisation.
Your Care Team & Contact
Steve Abdool, Bioethicist (Mon-Wed)
Cell: 519-732-1282
Pager: 416-714-5584
Email: sabdool@stjoes.ca
On call pager (for urgent or after hours ethics support):
416-864-5070 pager ID# 4211
Please leave your full 10-digit phone number and extension (if applicable) to ensure a timely response to your page.
Referral Process
Please do not hesitate to connect with the Staff Bioethicist using any of the contact information noted above. If it is after business hours or on weekends, please speak to your healthcare team to have the Bioethicist on-call paged.