This insistence on parental involvement can be ethically problematic for competent young people who may be taking part in research that involves discussing sensitive topics, for example illicit drug use and suicidal intent.
It has been suggested that informed consent about BBN may be a logically and ethically sound process for competent patients, and we agree with the idea that such informed consent merits further study [ 9].
A culturally competent, gender and ethically sensitive approach is argued for to ensure the provision of quality ethical care for migrant families in host countries.
Assuming consent is ethically necessary before taking organs from living competent people, questions arise about what makes consent valid.
If a person has negative motives, or if he is not competent to make informed decisions, his actions are not justified ethically.
My final point is this: the question of what is ethically permissible can only be decided on by society itself, not by competent experts acting as the guardians of that society.
The proper response to this proposal is to point out that the fact the subjects are competent and give informed consent does not establish that it is ethically acceptable.
Withdrawing a life-support treatment is considered legally and ethically permissible when it is based on the valid refusal of treatment by a competent patient or an authorized surrogate decision-maker because of the prior preferences of the patient or the sound judgment of the surrogate about the patient's best interests [ 15].
We assert that current trends in science, technology, medicine, and global politics dictate that these skills will be necessary to responsibly guide ethically sound employment of science, technology, and engineering advancements in medicine so as to enable more competent and humanitarian practice within an increasingly pluralistic world culture.
The correspondence – sent to companies including Nestlé, whose product Boost Plus has been reportedly given to inmates being forcibly fed – says that "force-feeding of mentally competent adult hunger strikers is a gross violation of internationally accepted standards of medical ethics" and is "never ethically acceptable".
