The ethical context of clinical photography.

The unforseen consequences of unconsented clinical photography when images are required for publication is an issue that affects medical practitioners and clinical photographers. This paper discusses, a scenario based on a typical event, the nature of informed consent and its relationship to ethical theory and the development of codes of practice. It includes a critique of ethical theory and describes mapping or codification of moral behaviour and the relationship to protocols or codes of practice, and concludes with a call to improve understanding and expertise in the study of ethics and its context in medical illustration.