Ethical issues in nursing and midwifery from a local perspective

Abstract

Ethics is concerned with what is right or wrong, good or bad. This may appear to be misleadingly simple. Trying to determine what is good or bad in different situations, for different people, different cultures and different moral values can be confounding, especially as each of us brings something of their own history, experience, beliefs and values to any given situation (McHaffie 1995). This is why although there is such a vast amount of literature on health care ethics, it is sometimes impossible to find a clear cut solution to the different practical problems that one encounters in the clinical area. I would like to explore how some local factors such as the size of our country, our culture and religion can have a bearing on the common ethical issues encountered in the clinical area.