ABSTRACT

Medical practice is a moral exercise and doctors and their colleagues in the health care team are moral agents. Ethics is the study of moral choices and medical ethics is concerned with moral choices in medicine. Risk-taking is inherent in the practice of geriatric medicine. To calculate the risk involved in a particular style of living, or a particular undertaking as well as a proposed medical or surgical procedure, requires the striking of a balance between beneficence and non-maleficence. Critical to the exercise of autonomy is mental capacity, though casting doubt on the latter is a common reason for denying respect for the former. Personal autonomy grants the right to follow a self-chosen plan based on choice. Traditional medical ethics was based on the doctor-patient relationship on the basis that this was a 'one-to-one' encounter. The British Medical Association has recently published a code of practice for advance statements about medical treatment.