Table 1

Top 10 ethical challenges facing Canadians in health care

Rank

Scenario

Score

1

Disagreement between patients/families and health care professionals about treatment decisions

113

2

Waiting lists

102

3

Access to needed health care resources for the aged, chronically ill and mentally ill

89

4

Shortage of family physicians or primary care teams in both rural and urban settings

82

5

Medical error

76

6

Withholding/withdrawing life sustaining treatment in the context of terminal or serious illness

56

7

Achieving informed consent

43

8

Ethical issues related to subject participation in research

40

9

Substitute decision-making

38

10

The ethics of surgical innovation and incorporating new technologies for patient care

21

Breslin et al. BMC Medical Ethics 2005 6:5   doi:10.1186/1472-6939-6-5