ABSTRACT
Introduction: Psychiatric Ethics as a Distinct Discourse Bill Fulford, an English philosopher of psychiatry, dubbed psychiatric ethics the “bioethical ugly duckling.”1 Fulford attributed this to the explosion of high-tech medicine, the arcane nature of psychiatric diagnosis and treatment, and the confronting and difficult nature of ethical issues that occur in day-to-day practice in psychiatry, such as involuntary treatment or breaching confidentiality.
