Michael Robertson1, Garry Walter. 1. Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and Sydney South West Area Health Service (Eastern Sector), Sydney, NSW, Australia. mrobertson@med.usyd.edu.au
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to consider the components of two moral theories--the ethics of virtue and the ethics of care--and their relationship to psychiatry. CONCLUSIONS: Although both theories reflect fundamentally desirable human qualities, neither provides a comprehensive account of psychiatric ethics. We are therefore drawn to a similar conclusion as those of Hare (1993) and Bloch and Green (2006), in that these theories offer a complementary approach to other ethical theories in psychiatry.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to consider the components of two moral theories--the ethics of virtue and the ethics of care--and their relationship to psychiatry. CONCLUSIONS: Although both theories reflect fundamentally desirable human qualities, neither provides a comprehensive account of psychiatric ethics. We are therefore drawn to a similar conclusion as those of Hare (1993) and Bloch and Green (2006), in that these theories offer a complementary approach to other ethical theories in psychiatry.