Email from Torill May 5th

Dear Elisha, Hope and Gabrielle, Thanks for all your efforts and dedication in the Ethics group! I just posted Elisha's excellent work on the blog. I have also added some new links to the link collection. I've had some time to sit down today, to look back at what we have done and do a little bit of planning... I believe I may get more room for this now, as I have changed to a less demanding job :-) I see I have a lot of reading to do. BUT: I feel we are at a point where we need to involve the health promotion community. This is something most of us have brought up in our reflections. Of course, much of this will be an ongoing process with the community, but I feel we need to get feedback on the direction we should go in quite early in the process. VHPO will provide an open forum for that, but I think we should start already now by inviting some stakeholders to share their views on a few questions. This raises a few questions, which I invite you give your view on:

1. Which 5 main questions do you think we need feedback on at this stage of our work?
2. Who do you think ought to be consulted at this stage? (not names, rather types of stakeholders)
3. How should we consult them?

Would it be possible to share our response to these three questions with each other within May 16th? I must admit I'm late doing my reading of our 'common platform', but I'll do my best to catch up. Good luck to each and every one of you in your busy schedules! Torill

Report from Elisha

Background research for ISECN Ethics in Health Promotion

PART ONE
Center for the Study of Ethics in the Professions at IIT (Illinois Institute of Technology)

http://ethics.iit.edu/iitcode/index.html

The website discuss how they formulated a committee and held focus groups to develop a university-wide code of ethics.
Includes a timeline of what was done and when – took 2 years to get a final version.
There is a link to ‘Code of Ethics Online’.
This is a very well organized and classified clearinghouse of over 850 codes of ethics from professional societies, corporations, government, academic institutions.
You can browse the ‘Index of Codes’, orgainised by professional category, search the codes using the Google search engine or get an alphabetical listing of the codes
Codes cover a range of topics from Engineering, finance to sport and religion.
When you search under the professional category of ‘health care’ it also includes Declarations, Policy Statements, Guidelines, Rights of various health organizations.
You can then follow each link to the particular code of ethics.
What is difficult to determine is the quality/limitations of each of the particular code of ethics. It would be useful if the website had a tool of some sort that you apply to appraise the codes as such. For example the average reader would not be able to identify whether the code is missing. Also implications of not adhering to the codes.

The website does offer these questions for reviewing codes:
Does my professional code of ethics give clear advice on this type of case?
Could someone endorsing the opposite course of action also use the code to support her choice?
Do the different guidelines within the code give conflicting guidance on this type of case, or do all guidelines point to the same outcome?
Does my professional code of ethics conflict with my own individual moral compass? Is there a way I can find a conscientious compromise?
Does a particular guideline within a professional code give acceptable guidance in one case but unacceptable guidance in another?
If my professional code gives very specific guidance, what general moral principles underlie the specific advice?
Have the framers of my professional code taken all the reasonable and likely types of cases into account before constructing the code?

It would be difficult for health promotion to use one of these codes as a model because as a clinician, for example a Counselor, it would be a condition of employment and professional registration that you abided by the code of ethics in your everyday work, with ramifications for non-adherence. This would be difficult for health promotion as there are no standards for who is a health promotion practitioner, no formal registration or even standard competencies. People and orgnaisations also ‘do’ health promotion with out realising so it would be difficult to determine who should be adhering to a code of ethics.

Contains information on ‘how to use a code of ethics’
“Codes of ethics are created in response to actual or anticipated ethical conflicts. Considered in a vacuum, many codes of ethics would be difficult to comprehend or interpret. It is only in the context of real life and real ethical ambiguity that the codes take on any meaning.
Codes of ethics and case studies need each other. Without guiding principles, case studies are difficult to evaluate and analyze; without context, codes of ethics are incomprehensible. The best way to use these codes is to apply them to a variety of situations and see what results. It is from the back and forth evaluation of the codes and the cases that thoughtful moral judgements can best arise.”

There is a section on ‘Resources for Writing a Code of Ethics’.
ONLINE :
CSEP's newsletter, Perspectives, featured a Fall 1999 issue on Writing a Code of Ethics
The Ethics Resource Center has a toolkit available for use. When used for commercial purposes, a nominal license fee is required.
Articles on Code Of Ethics, compiled by Chris MacDonald
Creating A Code Of Ethics for Your Organization, with many suggested books, by Chris MacDonald
Business for Social Responsibility's Codes of Ethics article
Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers by Carter McNamara
Developing a Code of Conduct for a Corporate Board of Directors: A Roadmap by Frank Narvan.
Interpreting Your Code article by Cornelius von Baeyer, outlining principles and approaches for using a code of ethics within an organization, with the Canadian Council for International Co-operation as the case study
Recommendations for Developing Codes of Conduct, sites from Virginia Tech
"Globalizing a Code of Ethics" by Cheryl Raven (2004), from the Ethics Resource Center.
"Guidelines for Developing Non-profit Codes" and "Implementing an Organizational Code of Ethics" by William MillerInternational Business Ethics Review , Volume 7 , Issue 1. Available thorough the the International Business Ethics Institute
Institute of Business Ethics based in the United Kingdom, has a codes of conduct page with a number of resources for developing a code of ethics for large and small businesses.
International Business Ethics Review, newsletter of the International Business Ethics Institute, has published a Winter 2004 issue (Vol. 7, #1) with a special focus on "Organizational Codes of Ethics", with suggestions on creating an effective electronic code of conduct, as well as guidelines for non-profits, among other useful articles. Also see "Writing an Effective Global Code of Conduct" by Lori Tansey Martens in Vol. 8, Issue 1 of The International Business Ethics Review.
The Journal of Mass Media Ethics offered a 2002 special issue on Codes of Ethics (link offers table of contents, with abstracts, only).
"Can You Improve your Code of Ethics?" American Society of Newspaper Editors, October 25, 2000.
"Twenty Questions to Ask about Your Code of Conduct". Joe Murphy and Win Swenson. Ethikos and Corporate Conduct Quarterly (July/August 2003).
PRINT :
Codes of Conduct for Partnership in Governance: Texts and Commentaries. Edited by Tatsuro Kunungi and Martha Schweitz, Tokyo, Japan: The United Nations University, 1999.
Creating a Workable Company Code of Ethics. Washington D.C.: Ethics Resource Center, 1990. (Second edition, 2003). Order
Fairweather, N. Ben. "No, PAPA: Why Incomplete Codes of Ethics are Worse than None at All", in Ethics in the Age of Information Technology, G. Collste, (ed). Linkoeping, Sweden: Center for Applied Ethics, Linkoeping Universitet, 2000.
Frankel, Mark S. "Professional Codes: Why, How, and with What Impact?" Journal of Business Ethics 8 (1989): 109-115.
Gaumnitz, Bruce R. and John C. Lere. "Contents of Codes of Ethics of Professional Business Organizations in the United States". Journal of Business Ethics 35.1 (January 2002): 35-49. Link to abstract
Sandra Trice Gray, CAE. "Codify Your Ethics". Association Management Pg. 288 (August 1996)
Implementation and Enforcement of Codes of Ethics in Corporations and Associations. Washington D.C.: Ethics Resource Center, 1980.
Kaptein, Muel. "Business Codes of Multinational Firms: What Do They Say?" Journal of Business Ethics 50.1 (March 2004): 13–31. Link to abstract
Kaptein, Muel and Johan Wempe. "Twelve Gordian Knots When Developing an Organizational Code of Ethics". Journal of Business Ethics 17.8 (June 1998): 853-69. Link to abstract
Molander, E. A. "A Paradigm for Design, Promulgation and Enforcement of Ethical Codes". Journal of Business Ethics 6 (November 1987): 619-626.
Tucker, Lewis, Vlasis Staghakopolous, and Charles H. Patti. "A Multidimensional Assessment of Ethical Codes: The Professional Business Association Perspective". Journal of Business Ethics 19.3 (April 1999): 287–300. Link to abstract

Includes a link to a useful bibliography with 74 references. This would be useful for us to look at more closely to identify any relevant resources.

Other Works Cited:
Davis, Michael. "Thinking like an Engineer: The Place of a Code of Ethics in the Practice of a Profession". Philosophy and Public Affairs 20.2 (1991): 150-167.
Harris, Charles E., Jr., Michael S. Pritchard and Michael J. Rabins. Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing, 1995.
Ladd, John. "The Quest for a Code of Professional Ethics: An Intellectual and Moral Confusion". Ethical Issues in Engineering. Ed. Deborah G. Johnson. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991. 130-136.
Luegenbiehl, Heinz C. "Codes of Ethics and the Moral Education of Engineers", Business and Professional Ethics Journal 2 (1983): 41-61. Rpt. in Ethical Issues in Engineering . Ed. Deborah G. Johnson. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991. 137-154.


PART TWO
(Nuffield Council on Bioethics, 2007)

Nuffield Council on Bioethics. (2007). Public health: ethical issues. London, UK.

This report presents an ethical framework that aims to help answer the question of when and how the Government should act on public health issues. It considers four case studies within the framework: infectious disease, obesity, smoking and alcohol (as a compare and contrast case) and community water fluoridation. Whist it does not deal explicitly with codes of ethics for health promotion as is the focus of our task – it does raise and discuss relevant ethical issues for our consideration.

Includes literature review on ‘political philosophy’ and ‘bio ethics’.
John Stuart Mill’s ‘harm principle’ is a crucial aspect of the proposed framework’.
Discusses ‘informed consent’ and ‘reducing inequalities’ as important public health ethical issues.
Presents the stewardship model:
“The concept of ‘stewardship’ is intended to convey that liberal states have a duty to look after important needs of people individually and collectively. It emphasises the obligation of states to provide conditions that allow people to be healthy and, in particular, to take measures to reduce health inequalities. The stewardship-guided state recognises that a primary asset of a nation is its health: higher levels of health are associated with greater overall well-being and productivity.”

Thoughts for code of ethics: what about media, stakeholders, policy makers, NGO’s, governments and advocacy groups? Usually involved in the health promotion work we do. If health promotion is everyone’s business – then who needs to be involved in developing a code of ethics, surely not just academics? Need a framework for developing a code of ethics first.

Reflections on Ethics Reading

This blog entry will include my reflections on some reading I have done in the field of ethics and narrow in on some questions we will want to ask and issues we must discuss as we move forward.

From Yeo, 1993:
Yeo describes two main areas of ethical concern in health promotion.

1. Distributive Justice (Equity in health)
2. Intervention ethics (Voluntary or coercive behaviour change)

Yeo also explains the importance of how health promotion defined in thinking about ethics.

1. What does health promotion mean?
2. What is it referring to?
3. Is it disease prevention or more salutogenic in its approach?
4. Are policy measure health promotion? Community development? Immunization? Fluoridisation of water? Prenatal education? Literacy programmes?
5. What is health?

How relevant is the debate of whether the onus of responsibility for health lies at the individual or community level?

Yeo, finally, lands on the Ottawa Charter, suggesting that it transcends the individual vs. community debate and promotes an ethic of empowerment that should be used to guide health promotion.

1. How much of the Ottawa Charter can help guide ethics for health promotion?
2. Is it sufficient?
3. What is missing from it, if anything?

From Buchanan, 2000:
Buchanan’s book is a very stimulating look at modern health promotion. Buchanan refutes the idea that positivist research should exclusively guide the field in its practice. While this strategy may work in strictly biological terms, he condemns the notion that human behavior should be controlled by such means. Health promotion interventions that seek to change behavior in populations who do not decide for themselves to change, Buchanan believes, are unethical. The medical approach to eradicating health problems involves a paradigm of mastery and control that while appropriate for small pox is not appropriate for drug abuse, violence, HIV/AIDS, obesity, or other modern health threats.

He believes that the modern world is preoccupied with what he refers to as “instrumental reason” at the sacrifice of “practical reason”. Instrumental reason focuses on how things are done—the means. Practical reason focuses on what should be done—the ends. This modern focus on technology has limited the kinds of questions which can be asked in modern science—it is only valid to ask questions which can be proven definitively and not to ask questions such as what is “good”?, what is “health”?.

He offers health promotion a virtue ethic which can guide practice. He believes the universal values on justice, caring and responsibility can direct and shape our work in an ethical way.

Questions that spring to mind:

1. What place does philosophy have in drafting a code of ethics?
2. Do we agree that there is too much focus on “instrumental reasoning” in health promotion?
3. What significance does that have on our work?
4. Is “informed consent” good enough to absolve health promoters from unintended affects of interventions?
5. What is the equivalent of Iatorgenesis in health promotion?
6. Is a virtues approach the best guide for a code of ethics in health promotion?

From Sindall, 2002:
Sindall reiterates the belief that there is too much focus on instrumental reason by stating: “Science and technology constantly serve to highlight the many things that can be done yet there is little opportunity to reflect on what should be done.”

Sindall suggests that the Ottawa charter could be used as a “statement of values and ethical commitments”.

He asks some relevant questions:

1. Do health promoters take for granted that they are doing the ethically right thing?
2. What model can bioethists provide us? Should we be similarly focused on doing no harm, doing good, justice, and respecting autonomy?

He also calls for certain actions which we are directly taking up including:

1. Developing conferences, discussion groups and other forums on Ethics in health promotion.
2. Encouraging conversations with other disciplines such as bioethics, human rights, and social philosophy.
3. Journals should call for papers on the topic.
4. Ethics should be incorporated into academic course work including case studies and materials should be developed to support the courses.
5. Finally, he asks the question which is the purpose of the group—Should IUHPE write a code of ethics?

References
Buchanan, D. R. (2000) An Ethic for Health Promotion: Rethinking the Sources of Human Well-being. Oxford University Press, New York.

Sindall, C. (2002) Does health promotion need a code of ethics? Health Promotion International, 17, 201-203.

Yeo, M. (1993) Toward an ethic of empowerment for health promotion. Health Promotion International, 8, 225-235.

late night reflections on a code of ethics for health promotion

I see the biggest challenge we face in working on a code of ethics for health promotion to be formulating an ethical code that speaks on behalf of all the people of the world, despite their religious or secular beliefs.

Codes of ethics are usually designed for specific professions and organisations, and while health promotioners are also professionals, I think that the holistic and universal nature of health promotion requires that we spend some time reflecting on what health promotion is.

Health promotion is founded on a set of principes and strategies for health for a whole world of people, but the philosophy of health promotion does not concern itself with the details of how things should be done. The principles and strategies of health promotion are "overarching", intended to be applied according to settings and needs, and I think we need a code of ethics that reflects this.

We can't make an ethical code that tells people what to do, but we can provide an ethical framework that guides people in thought and in action, no matter where in the world they live.

I think that a code of ethics for health promotion needs to be grounded in the Ottawa Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the document Towards a Global Ethic (there may also be others) that are universal and that have a view of humanity that is positive, caring and inclusive.

Looking forward to all that lies ahead in this exciting and challenging work.

Best wishes
Gabrielle

New date proposed for Ethics telephone conference

Hello All,

Just wanted to check in with everyone. How are your assignments going?

I have been looking into when we can do a teleconference during the day and it is very
difficult to schedule between Seattle, Bergen, Bangkok and Melbourne. In actuality, I
think it will be best to wait until the daylight savings switch to have the meeting.

I suggest we have the meeting Tuesday April 1st at 05:00 UTC.
That will be:
22:00 Monday March 31 in Seattle
07:00 Tuesday April 1 in Bergen
12:00 Tuesday April 1 in Bangkok
16:00 Tuesday April in Melbourne

If we do it before the daylight savings switch, it will be too late here or too early in
Bergen.

Does that sound good?

Since we would be extending the meeting, I think we could also extend the deadline for
our reports to 28 March.

What do you think?

Hope

Ethics workgroup distribution of responsibilities

Hello,

I think we need to have a meeting. ISECN has successfully used SKYPE to
hold teleconferences with colleagues around the globe. I think we
should plan to have such a meeting in one month's time-- would
mid-March work for everyone?

Before we can have an intelligent discussion, I think we need to
immerse ourselves in the field of ethics a bit. I have taken the
liberty to divide up some of the reading Torill and Maurice have
gathered. I think we should all read our assigned papers/areas and then
write brief reports on them that we can, for now, publish on the blog
and then eventually publish on VHPO (when our stream gets up and
running). We can then give a brief presentation on our topics during
our teleconference.

I offer this distribution of responsibilities:

1. Gabrielle: You stated an interest in looking at ethics generally
from a philosophical point of view, what ethics means, why ethics are
important, different approaches to ethics etc, in order to provide a
solid foundation for our work. If you could write a report on these
topics-- it would help us immensely!

2. Nithat: I think it would be interesting to get a view of ethics from
a completely removed field. A website Torill found on ethics cited the
following articles from the field of Engineering. Would you mind
getting a hold of these and reporting on them to us?

Here are the citations:

Davis, Michael. "Thinking like an Engineer: The Place of a Code of
Ethics in the Practice of a Profession". Philosophy and Public Affairs
20.2 (1991): 150-167.

Harris, Charles E., Jr., Michael S. Pritchard and Michael J. Rabins.
Engineering Ethics: Concepts and Cases. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Publishing, 1995.

Ladd, John. "The Quest for a Code of Professional Ethics: An
Intellectual and Moral Confusion". Ethical Issues in Engineering. Ed.
Deborah G. Johnson. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991. 130-136.

Luegenbiehl, Heinz C. "Codes of Ethics and the Moral Education of
Engineers", Business and Professional Ethics Journal 2 (1983): 41-61.
Rpt. in Ethical Issues in Engineering . Ed. Deborah G. Johnson.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1991. 137-154.

3. Elisha: This website that Torill found,
http://ethics.iit.edu/codes/Introduction.html, has gathered codes of
ethics from all kinds of fields over a number of years. Can you take a
careful look at this website and give us a report?

4. Hope: I was thinking I could follow up on these articles that
Maurice cited in his paper.

Buchanan, D. R. (2000) An Ethic for Health Promotion.
Rethinking the Sources of Human Well-being. Oxford
University Press, New York, pp. 81

Callahan, D. and Jennings, B. (2002) Ethics and public
health: forging a strong relationship. American Journal
of Public Health, 92, 169?176.

Sindall, C. (2002) Does health promotion need a code of
ethics? Health Promotion International, 17, 201?203.

Yeo, M. (1993) Toward an ethic of empowerment for health
promotion. Health Promotion International, 8, 225?235.

5. Torill. I actually think you have already done a very good job of
researching things for us and I believe you already have a good
overview. Would it be possible for you to work on outlining the
questions you posed on the blog into a discussion you can lead for us
during the teleconference? I think the questions you ask are exactly
what we need to ponder-- I know for myself, I need a bit more
information, to answer them intelligently.

This is a just a suggestion of how we can divide this work. If you
would rather examine something other than what I have assigned, please
just let us know what you will be looking at. I am willing to trade
with anyone if my topic seems more interesting to you!

As I said, I would like to plan a teleconference for mid-March, so let
us plan to deliver the reports by 8 March. That will give us some time
to read them before the call.

Please send me an email confirming that you are able to do this work in
this timeframe, a date in mid-March for a conference call and where you
will be, so I can plan a time of day that will work for all of us.

THANKS!
Hope

Link to a discussion about usefulness of CoEs

I strongly recommend visiting the following link for a short summary of current discussion about the relevance of and dilemmas concerning Codes of Ethics:


http://ethics.iit.edu/codes/Introduction.html

Torill

Hi everyone, there's a lot of very valuable information here, and I think its a great start. A lot to think about and reflect over. I've read the SOPHE code of ethics too, and I'll come with my comments very soon. I have an article that I really need to finish...hope to be finished at the weekend. Then I'll be able to focus on this work. I also want to look at ethics generally from a philosophical point of view, what ethics means, why ethics are important, different approaches to ethics etc, in order to provide a solid foundation for our work. How does this sound?

Best wishes to you all,
Gabrielle

SOPHE code of ethics - some reflections

REFLECTIONS OVER THE SOPHE CODE OF ETHICS
http://www.sophe.org/about/ethics.html
After reading the SOPHE Code of Ethics my main impression is that this is a thorough document covering many important areas. We can discuss this document in more detail at a later stage. But for now, I just wish to share some questions the code created in me:

1. Codes of ethics are said to build on an organization’s shared values. Still, in article I section 8 the rights of others to hold diverse values are underscored. Is this a conflict?

2. Article I section 2 claims that health educators facilitate the ‘best balance of benefits over harm for all affected parties’ – maximum benefit. Philosophically, this may be in conflict to the ‘no harm’ principle which is underscored in article V section 1.

In one way, I know this is just details – but still I think this is important for us to consider. In many ways, I feel that a comprehensive CoE must cover so many areas that it is bound to ‘bite its own tail’ at some point – to become self-contradictory. This raises the question of what we mean to achieve by having a CoE. Is it meant to be a document by which we present health promotion to the world, or is it meant to be of guidance to health promoters in their research and practice? How detailed and how comprehensive should a code be? How general, how specific? I believe it is possible to put down an endless amount of work in a code that no one will ever put to any use. A long and very general code will cover most situations and cultures, but might become too ‘heavy’ to be of any practical use.

How do we make a code that we can communicate to the diverse world of health promoters? Which kind of structure can we have to make it easy to remember and adhere to, like key principles? What should be the scope of it, who are we making it for?

There you are – I’m just raising a lot of questions. I think we are well into our process!

Torill

Guidance for writing a code of ethics

Dear all,

I have done some VERY QUICK looking into things that are important as we set out to draft a code of ethics. I wouldn't call it fundamentals of ethics per se, rather some fundamental considerations to take as we set out drafting a code.

I will soon post some comments I have about the SOPHE code of ethics - which I find a thorough document which raises some dilemmas we should discuss. I'll return to that. But first, just a summary of what I have read about drafting codes of ethics:

GUIDANCE FOR WRITING A CODE OF ETHICS
This is a short résumé from the content of the website ‘Guidance for writing a code of ethics’ by Chris MacDonald, PhD (http://www.ethicsweb.ca/codes/) I strongly recommend visiting this site for a helpful introduction and many good links.

A WHY HAVE A CODE OF ETHICS?

1. To define accepted/acceptable behaviours;
2. To promote high standards of practice;
3. To provide a benchmark for members to use for self evaluation;
4. To establish a framework for professional behaviour and responsibilities;
5. As a vehicle for occupational identity;
6. As a mark of occupational maturity.


B QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER BEFORE YOU SET OUT

1. Purpose of the code – regulate behaviour? Inspire?
2. For guidance or regulation? Might a statement of values or a code of conduct do the job?
3. Tailor a CoE to the needs and values of your organization
4. Two common elements:
a. Aspirational – the ideals the organization hopes to live up to
b. Rules or principles – members expected to adhere
5. Any kind of enforcement? If so, which?
6. Order principles or values in order of importance to organization
7. Think carefully about the process of creating a code – the process might be as important as the code itself
a. A small group? All those affected?
b. How to destill values into a document?
8. How to implement code?
a. How to publicize, inside and outside organization?
b. How to implement in policies and practice?



C CONSIDERATIONS FOR WRITING A CODE OF ETHICS

1. Tailor-make your code for your organizations values
2. Get ‘employees’ involved
3. Consult key stakeholders
4. Outsource the job only carefully – the code must be yours
5. Seek out good examples
6. Be clear about scope – who should adhere to the code?
7. Be specific about implementation
8. Plan for education
9. Be clear about enforcement
10. Specify a sunset date – codes of ethics need to be revised at times

Key words:
Specificity, tailoring, process of inclusion, occupational identity, occupational maturity, thoughtful planning

Distribution of Work

Hello All,

I have been thinking of how we can distribute the workload for our preliminary research. I was thinking that once Torill has done her research on the fundementals of ethics, we can divide those fundamentals up between us (and add others we feel are important), research those areas independently and then report back on our assigned area. Hopefully, we'll be able to split them up according to our interests.

What do you think of this approach?

Hope

FUNDAMENTALS OF CODES OF ETHICS (CoE)...

Dear all,

I intend to start my contribution by looking into fundamental issues about Codes of Ethics, like getting an overview of definitions, recommendations, do's and don'ts. I'll post the results on the blog as soon as I can, we'll see.!

Torill

Draft of Work Plan

Dear Colleagues,

Thank you for your patience as we allowed time for people to volunteer for this very important working group-- to develop a professional code of ethics for health promotion!

We are a rather small working group, just five people, but we have a very good geographic spread. We are Nithat in Thailand, Elisha in Australia, Gabrielle and Torill in Norway and me (Hope) in the US. I have also found out that we have some colleagues in Israel who are also working toward this end. I have emailed one of the women involved with the project and await to hear her response. Perhaps, we can join up with what they are doing.

In the meantime, I wanted to share with you my initial thoughts on how we can proceed. But first, I want to let you know that we have a couple of tools at our disposal to help us with our work. One, Torill has set up a blog for us which I think will be a good way to communicate. The address is http://www.hpethics.blogspot.com/. (You will see a copy of this email there). Second, we will be the first stream for Views on Health Promotion Online (VHPO), the new electronic journal of the IUHPE. Torill will be the stream manager. It should be up and running soon!

This is my first though on how we can plan to work over the next several months.

1. Jan: group members research relevant reading
2. Feb and Mar: divide reading between members, each has the
responsibility to read and write a summary for the rest of us (summaries will be published on VHPO)
3. Apr: Identify other codes of ethics and distribute among members
4. May: Compare other professional codes of ethics to the Ottawa
Charter, Bangkok Charter and other key sources of HP guidance.
5. June and July: Draft code of ethics
6. August: Publish in P & E
7. Sept: Present in Turin and other global forums

How does this plan look to you? Do you see any other work that should be done that I have neglected? How do you think we should divide up the literature search between us?

Thanks so much for your desire to contribute to this project. I think it is going to be an incredible contribution to the field of health promotion and it really gives us all an opportunity to reflect on our work in an exciting way. Not to mention the fact that we will be doing a LOT publishing of our work and results along the way.

Best,
Hope

WELCOME...

Welcome to the ethics blog!