From Individual`s Rights to Public Benefits – A Conflict of Values in Healthcare

Abstract

This article emphasizes the important differences that should be taken into consideration, when the ethical concepts are used in the analysis of the specific practical situations in healthcare. The definitions of medical ethics, bioethics, and public health ethics seem to resemble in their ultimate scope, but look very different in their relational interactions among stakeholders. The major differences could be attributed to the moral norms and values that guide the ethics decisions. The ethics approaches and their potential effect on human rights protection is discussed in the presented case study analysis of a legislative act on late term abortions for social reasons in the Republic of Moldova.