Ethics summit I: assembling the ethical community

Ethics Summit I was a unique gathering of organizations representing all of oral health care, convened by the American College of Dentists, for the purpose of seeking a common ethical ground. The background of the conference and its logistics are described here. Four themes were discussed: the role of ethics codes, conflicting values, responding to unethical behavior, and organizations as ethical agents. The conference was grounded in the unusual assumptions that the participants did not have to have a common profile of values to engage in ethical discussion and that individual behavior is not the only level at which ethical discussion must take place. Finally, we did not begin with an assumption that one group could define an ethical code that all others might subscribe to. One strong consensus that emerged was the desirability of creating an alliance of all concerned with oral health care to continue such conversations.