Further, ethics has been called one of the top three reasons that veterinarians leave equine practice,2 making addressing the issue of ethics crucial to long-term success in equine practice. The path to choosing the “right therapy” is often complex. Quality of life aspects of animals with cancer have been addressed to some extent in the current literature. Our profession cannot continue to stay strong into the coming decades with the loss of exceptional talent that we are now experiencing. Ethical dilemmas can be intensely personal. This article can help you be successful in your communications with any age group. (…) Qualitative considerations (…) became invisible to scientific medicine in the face of the assumption that more life was always better, a victory against the disease.”1 The relevant facts of the individual malignancy and the expected consequences of a treatment must be provided alongside numerical facts to pet owners. She describes that there is no need for a common definition of well‐being or of a good life. ©2020 ‐ Improve International, Alexandra House, Whittingham Drive, Wroughton, Swindon, Wiltshire SN4 0QJ, England. She details recent research from the CIPD on the causes and solutions to unethical behaviour: “Individuals, organisations and the issues and challenges people face are all implicated in unethical behaviour. Beating yourself up only adds to the distress the situation has caused. For Philippa, the response should depend on the nature and the seriousness of the mistake: “A good rule of thumb, to encourage an openness in the discussion of honest mistakes, is to investigate the mistake rather than looking to apportion blame.”, Should an organisation maintain zero-tolerance to unethical behaviour? The ability to communicate clearly and effectively with clients is essential to our success as veterinarians. As a result of these considerations, preliminary guidelines are presented, along which a decision‐making discussion can be held. In Philippa’s opinion, “business ethics can be seen as being about big news stories of misconduct, corruption, black and white bad behaviour or big issues like human rights, sweatshop labour or climate change... we are all making ethical decisions every day”. Reward strategies could explicitly call out the importance of unethical behaviour.”, Philippa echoes this view. Ethical decisions happen every day, and they can lead to stress. Humans should eschew the violent and cruel treatment of the “irrational part of creation” (ie, animals), as this would lead to the brutalization of the human race and blunt compassion for the rest of humankind. Striking the balance between ethical and profitable decisions. Accessed June 15, 2017. https://aaep.org/guidelines/aaep-ethical-and-professional-guidelines. The values we use to guide decisions in our personal lives are not necessarily those that we use to make recommendations to clients and provide care to patients. The BVA's Ethics and Welfare Group recently considered the issue of euthanasia to review what advice could be given both to recent graduates and older veterinary surgeons on the euthanasia of owned animals (BVA 2009). The basic conditions can be extended through (D) other criteria that define an individual good quality of life, thus maximizing the interests analogous to the concept of the “best‐interest standard.” If the treatment meets these criteria, then a decision for the treatment that delivers the greatest good defined in (A) or the best risk‐benefit balance can be made. This is not so in our personal lives, where our decisions are based more on our values and our goals in a particular situation, as well as any potential consequences. She suggests starting by identifying the core values to which the business wishes to be committed and held accountable. Fair trade, social responsibility and good governance have all followed from heightened levels of corporate scrutiny. However, it could possibly be used for equal consideration across species. The stated pathocentric view suggests that the pain and suffering of the animal and its interest in not suffering should take a very high priority.19, 20 The animal is not to be seen as a resource that must be handled from a moral perspective (ie, out of consideration of the owner's or another human's interest), but instead, the animal's own ability to suffer and sentience requires moral consideration.19 The biological relationship and commonality between humans and animals come here to the fore, and animals are therefore seen as morally relevant sentient beings from a utilitarian point of view. According to the authors of the study, veterinary medicine has a very complex ethical structure and in this complex structure, veterinarians have to balance between the obligations they have to the pets, to their owners, to all other veterinary professionals and the whole society. In addition to the diagnostic and therapeutic options, veterinary palliative care and hospice options are emerging in certain countries with the aim of “addressing patient's unique emotional and social needs as well as physical needs (…)” upon terminal illness.3-5 However, regarding treatment of animal compared with human patients, several aspects remain different, as owners must mostly bear the costs themselves and only a fraction of owners have pet health insurance.