Establishing and Defining an Approach to Climate Conscious Clinical Medical Ethics.

Area of Science:

• Bioethics
• Environmental Ethics
• Clinical Medical Ethics

Background:

• Current clinical medical ethics (CME) maintains an anthropocentric focus, largely excluding environmental concerns.
• Climate change presents complex ethical challenges to CME due to dispersed causes/effects and its transdisciplinary nature.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and reconcile ethical issues climate change imposes on CME.
• To establish how moral theories can support both medical practice and environmental flourishing.
• To propose an expanded scope for CME inclusive of environmental and non-human considerations.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of ethical issues at the intersection of climate change and CME.
• Examination of virtue ethics, feminist ethics, and theories of justice.
• Application of an expanded CME scope to the Four Topics model.

Main Results:

• Climate change necessitates a reevaluation of CME's anthropocentric limitations.
• Established moral theories can underpin a dual focus on human health and environmental sustainability.
• An expanded CME scope, incorporating environmental and non-human elements, is ethically viable.

Conclusions:

• Clinical medical ethics requires an expanded scope to effectively address climate change.
• Integrating environmental ethics into CME is essential for holistic bioethical practice.
• A climate-conscious Four Topics model can guide ethical decision-making in healthcare.