ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the practice of medicine and health care and looks at the range of difficult moral issues that have been thrown up in clinical practice by the huge advances in medical science and technology. Many ethical issues, including the question of the morality of abortion, revolve round disagreement about the status of the embryo/foetus. However, the success of organ transplantation has brought with it major ethical problems. But there is another major ethical issue currently affecting regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine does seem to hold out great hope for the future, but, for the present, the shortcomings and ethical uncertainties associated with transplantation and other proven therapies seem likely to remain. The ethical issues in dealing with mental illness relate to two different concerns: the welfare of the patient and the safety of others. The ethical challenge in this field is getting the balance right between individual freedom and social control.
