Ethical issues in the practice for nurses and midwives

Abstract

The ethical aspects of the health professions have been important at least for the last 2000 years, but it is only in the last couple of decades that there has arisen a special stimulus for the discussion of ethical issues among us, spearheaded by such organisations as the Council of Europe, UNESCO and similar bodies who have seen fit to set up specific committees for the purpose of looking into the various aspects of ethical practice. In Malta we have been doing our bit to provide a venue for dissemination of information and encourage discussion. The Bioethics Consultative Committee was originally set up just over 10 years ago, and since then we have been trying to bring to the public, as well as more specifically to health professionals, the need to tackle ethical issues.