Health ethics in Pakistan: A literature review of its present state

National literature on ethics provides an insight into the nature and devel opment of a dialogue on health issues within a population. This study inves tigated the health ethics discourse in Pakistan, The purpose was to critica lly reflect on the nature and level of such discussions with the aim of sti mulating an interest in the ethical implications of health and medicine in developing countries. The study evaluated the literature on biomedical and health ethics published in Pakistan during 1988-1999. Overall, there is a d earth of published discourse on healthcare ethics in Pakistan, Values that are considered to stem from religious teachings predominate in discussions relating to medical ethics. A lack of effective policy and legislation conc erning the ethical practice of medicine is reported to have negative effect s on the profession. Research ethics has not been captured in the published papers in Pakistan. Consideration of ethical issues in health is at an ear ly stage in the country and may reflect the situation in a large part of th e developing world.