"Oaths, codes, declarations and statements of principles that discuss moral issues that practitioners engaging illness should consider are among the most significant documents in the literature of health care." So states Stanley Reiser in one of the early chapters of a text focused on the creation and implementation of a code of ethics at the University of Texas (UT) Systems Cancer Center.
For two years, between 1984 and 1986, the M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute grappled with selfevaluation and introspection within its staff and between its patients and community in the compilation of a unique document. One culmination of this ongoing endeavor was a conference/critique of the proposed code, and The Common Bond is an edited anthology summarizing the substance and procedure of this undertaking. The UT Cancer Center is an institution dedicated to patient care, teaching, research, and education. This complex interplay of goals and interests presents