June 2010 Archives

Barbara Russell

My last column talked about how health care workers deal with situations that are morally distressing or worrisome; how to respond to the situation they face "right now" and how to prevent it from happening again. When someone asks me for ethics-related analysis or advice (I'm starting my ninth year in this kind of work), it's either in the guise of what I call "rescue ethics" or "preventive ethics." Similar to other aspects of health care, prevention is always better: a person or team typically has more options to consider, less adrenalin is released, less sleep is lost, and fewer hasty words are spoken. But daily practice is busy; people change their minds; unexpected events occur, so the urgent or "right now" situations still happen.