Argument-based medical ethics: a formal tool for critically appraising the normative medical ethics literature

Although there are critical appraisal tools for other genres of the medical literature, there currently is no formal tool for physicians to use in their critical appraisal of the normative medical ethics literature. We present a formal assessment tool for the critical appraisal of the normative medical ethics literature that incorporates the intellectual standards of argument-based medical ethics and evidence-based medicine. We draw on the intellectual standards of argument-based ethics, ethical analysis and argument, and the literature on evidence-based medicine. The tool involves 4 questions about normative medical ethics papers: (1) Does the article address a focused ethics question? (2) Are the arguments that support the results of the article valid? (3) What are the results? (4) Will the results help me in clinical practice? Obstetrician-gynecologists can use this tool to appraise the normative literature of ethics in obstetrics and gynecology formally.