[The patient as a person in the hospital as a business]

The ethical and bioethical questions are assuming an increasing importance within the changes that characterize the health field. Nursing, as other professions, examines the relationship between ethics and professional practice. Ethics is often thought of as an element belonging to the real nature of the profession, but it is necessary to know which exigence gives rise to this presumption. The core of all the different ethical conceptions existing to day is always the concept of "the person", that determines different behaviours. To be able to develop ethical responsibilities it is essential to know who the person is.