Abstract
The chapter begins by discussing a clinical vignette and its ethical considerations in the context of Alsabti v. Board of Registration in Medicine (of Massachusetts), a legal case dealing with disciplinary action against a physician’s unethical conduct while in medical school. The chapter then proceeds with a general introduction to medical ethics. Using ethics guidelines from the American Medical Association (AMA), American Psychiatric Association (APA), and the American Academy for Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL), the principles of medical ethics as applicable to psychiatry are presented and discussed. This discussion then serves as a foundation for illustrating the core elements of these ethical guidelines as they relate to forensic psychiatry, including issues of dual agency, informed consent, confidentiality, and striving for objectivity.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Alsabti vs. Board of Registration in Medicine, 404 Mass. 547; 1989. http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/404/404mass547.html. Accessed 28 Feb 2023.
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. David A. Levy vs. Board of Registration and Discipline in Medicine, 378 Mass. 519; 1979. http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/378/378mass519.html. Accessed 28 Feb 2023.
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Sherwin H. Raymond vs. Board of Registration in Medicine, 387 Mass. 708; 1982. http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/387/387mass708.html. Accessed 28 Feb 2023.
Federation of State Medical Boards. About Physician Licensure; 2023. https://www.fsmb.org/u.s.-medical-regulatory-trends-and-actions/guide-to-medical-regulation-in-the-united-states/about-physician-licensure/. Accessed 16 Jun 2023.
Gert B, Gert J. The definition of morality. In: Stanford Encycl Philos; 2020. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/morality-definition/. Accessed 28 Feb 2023.
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology—Policies. https://www.abpn.com/about/policies/. Accessed 28 Feb 2023.
Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. American Medical Association. Code of medical Ethics; 2016. https://www.ama-assn.org/about-us/code-medical-ethics. Accessed 28 Feb 2023.
American Psychiatric Association. The principles of medical ethics with annotations especially applicable to psychiatry; 2013. https://www.psychiatry.org/FileLibrary/Psychiatrists/Practice/Ethics/principles-medical-ethics.pdf. Accessed 28 Feb 2023.
American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. Ethics guidelines; 2005. http://www.aapl.org/ethics.htm. Accessed 28 Feb 2023.
Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Sugarman vs. Board of Registration in Medicine, 422 Mass. 338; 1996. http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/422/422mass338.html. Accessed 28 Feb 2023.
Edelstein L. The Hippocratic oath: text; translation, and interpretation. In: Cross cultural perspectives in medical ethics. 2nd ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins; 1943. p. 3.
Beauchamp TL, Childress JF. Principles of biomedical ethics. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 2013. p. 101–301.
American Psychiatric Association. APA Commentary on Ethics in Practice; 2021. https://www.psychiatry.org/FileLibrary/Psychiatrists/Practice/Ethics/APA-Commentary-on-Ethics-in-Practice.pdf. Accessed 28 Feb 2023.
Appelbaum PS, Jorgenson L. Psychotherapist-patient sexual contact after termination of treatment: an analysis and a proposal. Am J Psychiatry. 1991;148:1466–73.
Szasz T. Involuntary mental hospitalization: a crime against humanity. In: Biomedical ethics and the law. Boston, MA: Springer; 1976. p. 151–71.
Trachsel M, Sedlakova J. Ethics of telepsychiatry versus face-to-face treatment: let the patients make their autonomous choice. J Med Ethics. 2022;48(1):32–3.
McLoughlin A. The Goldwater rule: a bastion of a bygone era? Hist Psychiatry. 2022;33(1):87–94.
Timmerbeil S. The role of expert witnesses in German and U.S. civil litigation. Annu Surv Int Comp Law. 2003;9:163. Article 8.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2024 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Heil, K.M., Dike, C. (2024). Ethics. In: Wasser, T., Zhong, R. (eds) Psychiatry and the Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52589-6_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-52589-6_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-031-52588-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-031-52589-6
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)