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Institutional Identity, Integrity, and Conscience
- Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 7, Number 4, December 1997
- pp. 413-419
- 10.1353/ken.1997.0042
- Article
- Additional Information
Bioethics has focused on the areas of individual ethical choices--patient care--or public policy and law. There are, however, important arenas for ethical choices that have been overlooked. Health care is populated with intermediate arenas such as hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, and health care systems. This essay argues that bioethics needs to develop a language and concepts for institutional ethics. A first step in this direction is to think about institutional conscience.