Ethical considerations in perioperative orthopedic medicine

Abstract

Ethics is the study and application of moral reasoning in human endeavor. Arising as a consequence of advances in medical knowledge and technology, medical ethics has become a distinct domain of medicine that enables health care professionals and their institutions confront the formidable array of ethically charged dilemmas arising in everyday medical practice. This chapter is a consideration of the ethics of the perioperative period. After a review of the fundamental concepts that guide ethical analysis, this chapter reviews the important ethical challenges arising in this clinical setting.