Ethics Anxiety

Abstract

This case report, drawn from an American hospital, explores a phenomenon best described as ethics anxiety, a feeling of uncertainty as to what is ethically required or permitted, leading to clinical delay and confused decisions. In the specific clinical situation presented, the clinicians find themselves confronting, under severe time constraints, a complex, multidimensional problem with ethical and legal implications. The situation deteriorates as the clinicians find themselves unable to find what they perceive as the expert advice, either clinical or ethical, that would enable them to resolve the problem presented. In the discussion section of the case report, some attention is given to the role that the bioethics movement itself has had in creating these situations and undermining clinical decision-making.