Modern healthcare is full of ethical problems. I advise on how to navigate these issues • Guardian Jobs: see the latest vacancies in healthcare

Monday

Modern healthcare is full of ethical problems. Some are intensely practical, such as whether we can withdraw a feeding tube from a patient in a vegetative state who could go on living for many years, or whether a GP should give a police officer access to patient records following a local rape.

Others are more speculative and future-oriented: will robots become carers, and would that be a bad thing? And then there are the political questions, like whether the Home Office should have access to patient records. My job is to advise the British Medical Association on how we navigate these issues and make sure the theory works in practice for patients and healthcare professionals.

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I’m just back from a trip to Beirut funded by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, where I’ve been looking at the ethics of research in humanitarian crises. There are a million refugees in Lebanon and western institutions want to involve them in research. But we have to ask how fair this research would be, particularly if the benefits won’t flow to the refugees.

I spend the morning trying to make sense of my notes. I am also planning a trip to Lesbos to work with some doctors from Medecins Sans Frontières who are based just outside the refugee camps.

Tuesday

A teaching day at Lancaster University. I deliver two sessions on the medical ethics of the role of health professionals in healing the trauma of civil war. Following a trip to Bosnia I gave a talk to the students’ global health society on the role of health professionals on healing the trauma of civil war.

Between sessions I answer inquiries from doctors: can GPs remove patients from their lists if they make a formal complaint? (Not usually.) Can a doctor refuse to sign a firearms certificate if they have a conscientious objection? (Yes.) In the evening I am at a reception in Houses of Parliament organised by the charity Remembering Srebrenica.

Wednesday

Team meeting in the morning. There are six of us, and we swap what we’re working on. It’s an interesting list that includes guidance on non-therapeutic infant male circumcision, a hallowed religious practice some people vocally disagree with; doctors need to be satisfied that it is in the child’s best interests before proceeding. We need a paper for our ethics committee on the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare. Will it replace professional judgment? Will it improve it? And we’ve also been asked for guidance if there’s a post-Brexit drugs shortage. In the afternoon I update a book for doctors and lawyers on assessing mental capacity to consent or refuse medical treatment.

Thursday

I comment on a supplement to the Istanbul protocol, a manual for investigating and documenting torture. Drafting by committee – and for a global audience – is always an interesting challenge. Later, I take a 40-minute call from a distressed doctor about a long-standing domestic abuse case.

A medical colleague asks me about the use of location trackers for patients in care homes. It’s a tricky one: it could genuinely help safeguard people, but can be an intrusive excuse for understaffing. As with so much in ethics, it depends on context.

Friday

Northern Ireland has introduced some radical mental health legislation that means people who are mentally ill and can make a decision about their treatment, cannot be compulsorily treated. It’s controversial and ambitious. I’ve been invited to Northern Ireland to run a seminar on the legislation and today I’m looking at the new draft code of practice.

I’m also on the phone to colleagues overseas, to discuss at what point providing medical treatment in a brutally inhumane detention centre tilts over into complicity. There’s never a quiet moment.

If you would like to contribute to our My working week series about your job in public services, get in touch by emailing sarah.johnson@theguardian.com

