TY - JOUR T1 - Where families and healthcare meet JF - Journal of Medical Ethics JO - J Med Ethics SP - 183 LP - 185 DO - 10.1136/medethics-2013-101783 VL - 41 IS - 2 AU - M A Verkerk AU - Hilde Lindemann AU - Janice McLaughlin AU - Jackie Leach Scully AU - Ulrik Kihlbom AU - Jamie Nelson AU - Jacqueline Chin Y1 - 2015/02/01 UR - http://jme.bmj.com/content/41/2/183.abstract N2 - Recent developments in professional healthcare pose moral problems that standard bioethics cannot even identify as problems, but that are fully visible when redefined as problems in the ethics of families. Here, we add to the growing body of work that began in the 1990s by demonstrating the need for a distinctive ethics of families. First, we discuss what ‘family’ means and why families can matter so deeply to the lives of those within them. Then, we briefly sketch how, according to an ethics of families, responsibilities must be negotiated against the backdrop of family relationships, treatment decisions must be made in the light of these negotiated responsibilities and justice must be served, both between families and society more generally and within families themselves. ER -