The moral maze: navigating the ethical landscape of healthcare

Ethical decision-making pervades many aspects of health and social care practice. All practitioners, regardless of professional affiliation, must reflect on their role as moral agents. There are challenges in developing an ethical awareness of, and response to, the increasingly complex healthcare landscape. A case study of a clinical episode of care is used to illustrate how, while the adoption of an evidence-based, systematic approach can better inform ethical deliberation, conflicting moral obligations frequently add complexity and contradiction to the decision-making process.