Day-to-day problems in ethical decision making for efficacious healthcare delivery; bio-ethics are core values and standards of care applied to real life. In medical records, it reflects the practice philosophy, and provides a dependable continuity of care. Trends must be monitored during the medical record peer reviews.

Believe it or not, bio-ethics is not a Catanzaro term. I learned the value of the concept while completing my Masters in Healthcare Administration at Baylor University in Texas. The Hastings Report on Bio-ethical Issues in Healthcare Delivery was a foundation discussion tool, since it provided both the pros and cons of multiple medical issues. Roe versus Wade and Baby Doe are two bio-ethical issues that most people know from the abortion debates of our politicians. And the acceptable British euthanasia medical position for chronic pain or no quality-of-life patients versus the Kervorkian litigation in the USA is probably another. I wrote an abbreviated form of the above definition in Building The Successful Veterinary Practice: Programs & Procedures. However, it has yet to take hold in veterinary medicine as it has in human medicine.

Professionalism is a term we now use with our graduating students. It is supposed to convey colleagues instead of competitors, affiliation instead of isolation, and an operational quest to keep one's behavior beyond reproach. To most practitioners, it is more like the definition of pornography: "I know it when I see it."