A Perspective on Ethical Reflection in Multiprofessional Care

The aim of this article is to suggest guidelines for ethical reflection in multiprofessional care, in which there is a need of collaboration in order to fit together several different intervention practices and client needs. To this end, I studied Searle's and Habermas's approaches, which emphasise the use of language, Newman and Brown's model of ethical decision-making, and the challenge of reconsidering the basic values of administrative ethics. The results of this endeavour suggest that from speech acts it may be impossible either to logically derive moral duties or obligations to act, or to present idealising suppositions of such rules for dialogical situations as would ensure the production of universal norms for participants in a conversation. Neither the use of extensive principles nor reflection on several theories can ensure a clear view of the situation. In ethical reflection, the focus should be on commitment to a certain professional way of life and on discussion of values and professional virtues.