Ethics and Professionalism Guidelines for Obstetrics and Gynecology

Obstetrics and gynecology, dealing with all of human life’s major transitions—conception, birth, reproduction, aging, and death—has seen the greatest medical advances create ethical challenges for practitioners. Ethical challenges range from public advocacy for meeting the basic needs of health and human rights of women, to the most intricate issues raised by evolving knowledge and use of the human genome.
In 1985, FIGO (the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics) established its Committee for the Study of Ethics in Human Reproduction and Women’s Health, with the main objectives to record and study general ethical concerns in research and practice in women’s health, and to bring these to the attention of practitioners, policy makers, and the wider public in high- and low-resource countries.
This collection of guidelines makes recommendations for guidance and stimulation of discussion among all practitioners, to promote broader national and regional discussion of challenging ethical issues.