Philosophical rationale of medical ethics A brief introduction

Medical ethics is field of ethics in applied ethics. The terms ethics and morals are often used synonymously, which is understandable from the origins of the terms, as the Greek word "ethos" is translated into Latin as "mos". Literally translated, both mean "custom, habit". In the specialist discussion these terms are distinguished. Ethics is understood as a specialist discipline, which is also designated as moral philosophy or moral theology, depending on whether it concerns philosophical or theological ethics. This is distinct from moral, meaning well-recognized norms, ideals, values and the associated attitudes of a society. In the broadest sense, moral can be described as a societal convention (Latin: convenire = agreement). The individual is then moral, when the personal attitudes are in accordance with this societal convention. Ethos is a special case of morals that, for example, in the medical professional ethos includes norms and moral values of a certain professional group. This must be differentiated from rights, which lay down binding norms when as positive rights they become laws. These laws mostly represent societal compromises of values and norms. More simply said: in many cases rights are the codified morals of certain societies. Of special importance for the solution of medical ethical problems are four philosophical traditions, the Kantian as an example of deontological ethics, the utilitarian as an example of teleological ethics, the doctrine of natural law that can be referred to as virtue ethics and social contract theories. This article gives a brief introduction to these philosophical concepts, without being able to deal with the topic in its entirety.