The purpose of the Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research (the Code) is to guide institutions and researchers in responsible research practices. In describing good practice, this Code promotes integrity in research for researchers and explains what is expected of researchers by the community. In providing advice on how to manage departures from best practice, this Code assists researchers, administrators and the community in this important matter.

The World Medical Association (WMA) has developed the Declaration of Helsinki as a statement of ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects, including research on identifiable human material and data. Consistent with the mandate of theWMA, the Declaration is addressed primarily to physicians. The WMA encourages others who are involved in medical research involving human subjects to adopt these principles.

This resource is to complement your learning, and introduce you to other perspectives on the topics under discussion. The authors use the term “principlism” to refer to the practice of using “principles” to replace both moral theory and particular moral rules and ideals in dealing with the moral problems that arise in medical practice. The authors argue that these “principles” do not function as claimed, and that their use is misleading both practically and theoretically. The “principles” are in fact not guides to action, but rather they are merely names for a collection of sometimes superficially related matters for consideration when dealing with a moral problem. The “principles” lack any systematic relationship to each other, and they often conflict with each other. These conflicts are unresolvable, since there is no unified moral theory from which they are all derived. For comparison the authors sketch the advantages of using a unified moral theory.

This resource is to complement your learning, and introduce you to other perspectives on the topics under discussion.

The trolley problem is a moral paradox first posed by Phillipa Foot in her 1967 paper, "Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect," and later expanded by Judith Jarvis Thomson. The trolley problem is a question of human morality, and an example of a philosophical view called consequentialism.  

Practical Ethics is an introduction to applied ethics by bioethical philosopher Peter Singer. Some of the questions discussed in this book concern our daily lives. Is it ethical to buy luxuries when others do not have enough to eat? Should we buy meat from intensively reared animals? Am I doing something wrong if my carbon footprint is above the global average? Other questions confront us as concerned citizens: equality and discrimination on the grounds of race or sex; abortion, the use of embryos for research and euthanasia; political violence and terrorism; and the preservation of our planet's environment. This book's lucid style and provocative arguments make it an ideal text for university courses and for anyone willing to think about how she or he ought to live.

This weblink presents  the 2013 news report on the dispute between Coca-Cola and environment activists. It raises debate about Coca-Cola's stance on sustainability and ethical corporate behaviour. 

This book chapter sheds light on the challenge of Cultural Relativism. Although it presents the various shortcomings of the theory the chapter concludes that it is an attractive theory because it is based on a genuine insight - that many of the practices and attitudes that are taken as natural in society are really only cultural products. The author believes that this insight would help in avoiding arrogance and maintaining an open mind. 

This reading is a short extract from Paul Komesaroff's book 'Riding A Crocodile' which is both an insider's account of life in a major teaching hospital and a chilling detective story, exploring life and death issues of urgent contemporary relevance. The book tells the story of Abraham Nevski who is a dedicated and eccentric professor of medicine at the Royal Prince John Hospital. He prides himself on his diagnostic skills and powers of reasoning. On returning to work after a break he becomes aware of disturbing changes taking place in the hospital. A series of suspicious deaths then throws his world into confusion. Nevski's inner turmoil grows and he has to confront the dangers that close in around him.

This article discusses Utilitarianism as an ethical theory according to which the rightness and wrongness of acts depends entirely on facts about the maximization of overall well-being. In this article, after a brief account of the historical sources of utilitarianism, the following topics are explored: the defining characteristics of all forms of utilitarianism, the differences among various forms of utilitarianism, objections to utilitarianism, and the application of utilitarianism to moral problems.