MIDWIVES, THEIR EMPLOYERS AND THE UKCC - AN ETERNALLY UNETHICAL TRIANGLE

The majority of midwives in the UK are employed within the NHS. They a re legally bound to fulfil their contractual obligations to their empl oyers. At the same time they are professionally mandated to interpret and act on the UKCC's Code of professional conduct. Midwives have alwa ys maintained that they are autonomous practitioners, and the Code is written in a way that endorses this belief. Underlying the Code is the assumption that midwives have moral and professional freedom to act o n its imperatives. However, midwives' claim to autonomy is flawed, and therefore the Code's claim to be a source of empowerment is also flaw ed. Underlying the difficulties is a conflict derived from the imposit ion of a deontologically-based professional Code on to a workforce tha t is constrained within and employed by the utilitarian-based NHS.