Diversity and Medical Ethics

"The goal of the emerging field of cross-cultural healthcare is to improve providers' ability to understand, communicate with, and care for patients from diverse backgrounds. We should weave the concepts of cross-cultural care into the ethics of caring if we truly hope to have a positive impact on the health status of diverse patient populations." More>>>

Source: Betancourt JR, Green AR, Carrillo JE (2000). The challenges of cross-cultural healthcare--diversity, ethics, and the medical encounter. Bioethics Forum, 16(3), 27-32.

Religious Beliefs and Cultural Practices

• Common Beliefs and Cultural Practices
  The Provider's Guide to Quality & Culture
  This section provides medical practitioner with basic information on the culture, belief system, health strengths, and health challenges of people from some of the regions and groups of the world.Cultural Groups gives detailed information about several cultural groups.

• Cultural Diversity
  Myer, Ehren. (2006). RNotes: Nurse's Clinical Pocket Guide. F.A. Davis
  The table from RNotes by Ehren Myers includes cultural characteristics of groups that are widely dispersed throughout U.S.
  Page 1: African-Americans, Arab-Americans, Asian-Americans and Bosnian-Americans.
  Page 2: Native-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Russian-Americans

Blood Transfusion

• Jehovah’s Witnesses and Blood Transfusions
  Office of the Public Advocate
• Jehovah’s Witnesses
  Discussions of the use of blood transfusion, among other medical issues, within the Jehovah's Witnesses
  

End of Life Care

• Cultural Diversity: Hot topics
  Marianjoy Medical Library
  Many factors including culture and ethnicity determine thoughts about death. This section provides an ethical overview related to death and dying and links to severalresources.
• Culturally Diverse Communities and End-of-Life Care

  American Psychological Association

Organ Donation

All major religions support organ, tissue and eye donation. Still, within each religion there are different schools of thought.

• Organ Donation and Religion
  Gift of Life Donor Program
• Ethic and Racial Diversity in Transplantation: Does Everyone Benefit Equally? (Articles)
  T.D. Goode, R. Isaacs, D. Hricik
  Adv Stud Med 2007, 7(9): 268-74.
• Organ donation: Don't let these myths confuse you
  Mayo Clinic
• Religion and Organ and Tissue Donation
  The Gift of a Lifetime
• Religious Viewpoints
  New York Organ Donor Network.
  

Organizations

• Professional Bioethics Organizations
• International Organizations

Bioethics Resources on the Web

• Bioethics Research Library
  Kennedy Institute of Ethics,Georgetown University
  Provides an interdisciplinary and multi-format collection on ethical issues related to healthcare, biomedical research, biotechnology, and the environment.

• Ethics in Medicine
  University of Washington School of Medicine
  Offers case studies in public health ethics as a teaching tool for physicians and medical students.

• The Hastings Center
  Independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit bioethics research institute founded in 1969. The Center's mission is to address fundamental ethical issues in the areas of health, medicine, and the environment as they affect individuals, communities, and societies.
  

• NIH's Bioethics Resources on the Web
  The information accessible through this portal spans a wide range of topics, including institutional review boards; ethics committees, clinical ethics, international research ethics issues, genetics, and neuroethics, among others.

NLM Resourses

MedlinePlus® Provides authoritative consumer health information. Pertinent topics include: