Using artificial intelligence as an ethics advisor

Abstract

Ethical dilemmas are common in the practice of medicine and can lead to an array of seemingly reasonable decisions unless policies or regulations mandate certain actions. Choosing the appropriate solution requires not only biomedical evidence, but also requires the balancing of possibly divergent preferences, values, contextual factors and ethical theories. These include utilitarianism, which aims to optimise happiness for the largest number of people; versus deontology, which promotes actions based on rules and duties even if these actions do not result in the greatest common good. The inability to find common ground can both delay appropriate care and trigger moral distress among health professionals.1 However, training in ethical reasoning or obtaining ethics consultations may not be universally available. How then can frontline healthcare teams navigate ethical dilemmas?