The role of ethics codes in medicine - how can they be helpful in making decisions?

Ethics codes and the codification of ethics have become a well recognised and widespread phenomenon since the Nuremberg Code was formulated in 1947 as a result of the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial against Nazi physicians. International documentation shows an exponential increase of upcoming new codes in the health sector in general and for the professions and subspecialties involved in particular (Reich 1995, Reiter-Theil 1998/in press a, Trohler and Reiter-Theil 1998). But the significance and legitimacy of such codes are not clear. Despite the political impact and the professional or public awareness of codes, profound understanding and knowledge about the working of codes is lacking, due to a lack of specific research.