Professor Deirdre Madden:

There was a mention of cultural shifts and the normalisation of behaviours and so on. I will briefly make the point that ethics, including medical, professional and societal ethics, change all the time because of changing circumstances, new standards of behaviour, debates in society and so on. If we think back to 50 or 60 years ago, even in medical practice, informed consent was not the cultural norm. There was a lot of paternalism and shielding people from the truth about their diagnoses, illnesses, prognoses and so on. That has now shifted to become much more about truth-telling, empowering people to make decisions about their own healthcare and so on. Cultural shifts are not necessarily something to be feared or worried about. In fact, in many cases, they are a part of the changing and maturing of society.