The workshop “Ethics in Practice: Case-Based Reflection on Real Clinical Challenges” was facilitated by John Ellershaw, with the support of co-facilitator Minna Hokka. The session focused on ethical dilemmas that emerge in real palliative care practice, inviting participants to reflect on difficult situations experienced by patients, families, caregivers, physicians, and healthcare teams. Key topics included decision-making and patient capacity, withholding or withdrawing treatment, palliative sedation, hydration and nutrition, conflicts within healthcare teams, inequity in care, and other morally complex situations encountered at the end of life.
Participants worked in five groups, each analysing case-based ethical challenges and discussing possible responses from clinical, human, and moral perspectives. The workshop encouraged participants not only to identify ethical problems clearly, but also to consider the values, responsibilities, relationships, and contextual factors involved in each case. By sharing their reflections with the whole group, participants developed a deeper understanding of how ethical reasoning in palliative care requires communication, sensitivity, teamwork, and respect for the dignity and preferences of patients and their families.
