ABSTRACT
Ethical behaviour should promote and safeguard the interests of the individual. This means acting with integrity, sensitivity, and understanding. It also means avoiding exploitation, manipulation, intimidation, and causing distress, pain, or harm. A person's right to hold values and beliefs should be respected. True respect means taking other people's beliefs seriously, recognising that they are sincerely held and that they are meaningful to that person. It would be unethical to proselytise for humanism or to impose one's own non-religious beliefs and values on others. Humanists UK campaigns on a number of public ethical issues, and sets out its position on its website. One of the most relevant ethical issues in a pastoral care context is that of assisted dying. Some non-religious pastoral carers may wish to become a member of an ethics committee. Such committees must be independent and impartial; amongst other things, this means that members must be free from the pressures of any institutional affiliation.
