Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 01.09.1977, Side 31

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fession for maltreatment of individuals or groups, and should be
concemed never to let personal desires, feelings or prejudices
interfere with the treatment.
The psychiatrist must not participate in compulsory psychia-
tric treatment in the absence of psychiatric illness. If the
patient or some third party demands actions contrary to scientific
or ethical principles the psychiatrist must refuse to co-operate.
When, for any reasons, either the wishes or the best interests of
the patient cannot be promoted he or she must be so informed.
8. Whatever the psychiatrist has been told by the patient, or
has noted during examination or treatment, must be kept confiden-
tial unless the patient releases the psychiatrist from profession-
al secrecy, or else vital common values or the patient"s best in-
terests make disclosure imperative. In these cases, however, the
patient must be immediately informed of the breach of secrecy.
9. To increase and propagate psychiatric knowledge and skill re-
quires participation of the patients. Informed consent must, how-
ever, be obtained before presenting a patient to a class and, if
possible, also when a case history is published, and all reason-
able measures must be taken to preserve the anonymity and to safe-
guard the personal reputation of the subject.
In clinical research, as in therapy, every subject must be
offered the best available treatment. His or her participation
must be voluntary, after full information has been given of the
aims, procedures, risks and inconveniences of the project, and
there must always be a reasonable relationship between calculated
risks or inconveniences and the benefit of the study.
For children and other patients who cannot themselves give in-
formed consent this should be obtained from someone close to them.
10. Every patient or research subject is free to withdraw for any
reason at any time from any voluntary treatment and from any
teaching or research programme in which he or she participates.
This withdrawal, as well as any refusal to enter a programme, must
never influence the psychiatrist's efforts to help the patient or
subject.
The psychiatrist should stop all therapeutic, teaching or re-
search programmes that may evolve contrary to the principles of
this Declaration.
PRINCIPLES OF MEDICAL ETHICS
American Medical Association
Preamble These principles are intended to aid physicians individu-
ally and collectively in maintaining a high level of ethical con-
duct. They are not laws but standards by which a physician may
determine the propriety of his conduct in his relationship with