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Spesialist i allmennmedisin og i arbeidsmedisin, leder i Rådet for legeetikk.
Articles by Svein Aarseth
Erroneous age assessment of young asylum seekers
- Svein Aarseth,
- Torbjørn Sund,
- Lil-Sofie Ording Müller,
- Johan Bring
09.08.2022:
Today's use of BioAlder, a tool for assessing the likely age range of asylum seekers, is based on a statistical fallacy. Minors risk being classified as adults. The BioAlder tool yields a probable interval for chronological age according to the degree of skeletal and/or dental maturation of the...
Medical ethics in the forced return of migrants
- Svein Aarseth,
- Siri Hagen Brelin,
- Morten Andreas Horn,
- Jan-Henrik Opsahl,
- Ida Torgersdotter Øygard Haavardsholm,
- Tilde Østborg
17.08.2020:
The Abassi case put a spotlight on the role of doctors in forced returns. The role of doctors, their understanding of this role and their professional ethics are all challenged. The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration can make a decision to forcibly return a migrant who does not have legal...
Doctors and social media
- Svein Aarseth
23.09.2019:
Doctors who use social media must take care not to create problems for themselves, their patients or the medical profession in general. Doctors, in common with many others, are diligent users of social media, both in open and closed forums. They use these media as doctors, as private individuals...
The ethics of aesthetics
- Svein Aarseth
25.02.2019:
For a number of years, the Council for Medical Ethics has been working on issues pertaining to aesthetic medicine. Here, the Council responds to specific questions from the Norwegian College of General Practice. In two meetings in 2018, the Council for Medical Ethics deliberated on a complaint from...
The troubling duty to inform
- Morten Andreas Horn,
- Tilde Broch Østborg,
- Siri Hagen Brelin,
- Thore André Henrichsen,
- Svein Aarseth
03.09.2018:
Equal treatment is an absolute requirement in the Code of Ethics for Doctors. How may oncologists and other doctors handle information on commercial treatment options if the requirement of equal treatment is to be respected? The Medical Ethics Council recently deliberated a case concerning the...
While we await a new method of determining the age of young asylum seekers
- Svein Aarseth,
- Stine K. Tønsaker
05.03.2018:
The Norwegian Medical Association and the Medical Ethics Council advise doctors against participating in the age assessment of young asylum seekers. Current methods are insufficiently accurate, and it is difficult to safeguard the principles of voluntary participation and informed consent. Age is...
Paperless migrants and Norwegian general practitioners
- Svein Aarseth,
- Trygve Kongshavn,
- Kjell Maartmann-Moe,
- Per Hjortdahl
07.06.2016:
It has been estimated that in 2006 there were 18 000 paperless migrants in Norway (1). Rejected asylum applications or expired tourist visas are common reasons why people remain illegally in Norway. A total of 1.9 – 3.8 million paperless migrants are assumed to live within the EU (2, 3). Like...
15.03.2016:
Occasionally, doctors encounter patients in situations where professional ethics come into conflict with the law. Our Code of Ethics stipulates that we have a duty to protect the health of our patients and that we have a responsibility even if we deny care. Members of the Norwegian Medical...