Over the years, online healthcare has become a crucial part of the healthcare sector as there is growing interest amongst people for using the Internet to access health-related information and services. In spite of many benefits of online healthcare, its quality is a cause of concern as the consequences of inaccurate and misleading information could be dangerous. With the advancement in information technology, online health information and services continue to grow at unprecedented speed and volume. This rapid pace in technology poses great challenges for the ethical use of online health information and services. The purpose of this paper is to provide an ethical analysis of the issues and challenges of online healthcare by utilizing relevant examples of contemporary ethical issues. The paper discusses about various ethical codes of online healthcare and identifies some of their loopholes. With the help of ethical theories and meta-ethical analysis, the paper suggests implementing a universal ethical code for online healthcare which cater to the contemporary ethical issues.

1. Rice, R. E. 2006. Influences, usage, and outcomes of Internet health information searching: multivariate results from the Pew surveys. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 75(1), 8–25.
2. Rippen, H. and Risk, A. 2000. E-health code of ethics. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2(2).
3. Chhanabhai, P. and Holt, A. 2008. E-health and ensuring quality. Encyclopaedia of information ethics and security.
4. Calabretta. 2002. Consumer-driven, patient-centered health care in the age of electronic information. Journal of Medical Library Association, 90(1), 32-37.
5. Weiss, G. L. and Lonnquist, L. E. 2006. The sociology of health, healing and illness book.
6. Smith, M. W. 2008. Using the Internet to Improve Your health. Retrieved 10th November 2010, from http://www. webmd. com/a-to-z-guides/features/digital-medicine?ecd=wnl_lbt_102908
7. Sirigatti. 2006. Foreword: E-Health Benefits and Risks. In M. Murero & R. E. Rice (Eds. ), The Internet and the Healthcare – Theory, Research and Practice. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
8. Murero, M. and Rice, R. E. 2006. E-Health Research. In M. Murero & R. E. Rice (Eds. ), The Internet and Healthcare – Theory, Research and Practice. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
9. Anonymus. 2007. Pew Internet and American Life Project. Retrieved 11th November 2010, from http://www. pewinternet. org/PPF/r/190/report_display. asp
10. Eysenbach et al. 2002. Empirical studies assessing the quality of health information for consumers on the World Wide Web, a systematic review. Journal of the American Medical Association, 287(20), 2691-2700.
11. Wilson, P. 2002. How to find the good and avoid the bad or ugly: A short guide to tools for rating quality of health information on the Internet. British Medical Journal, 324(7337), 598-602.
12. Zeng, Q. et al. 2004. Positive attitudes and failed queries: An exploration of the conundrums of consumer health information retrieval. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 73, 45-55.
13. Quinn, M. J. 2006. Ethics for the Information age. Pearson Addison Wesley.
14. Fieser. 2009. Ethics: Internet Encyclopaedia of Philosophy. Retrieved 15th November, 2010, from http://www. iep. utm. edu/ethics/
15. Moor, J. H. 2004. Reason, Relativity, and Responsibility in Computer Ethics. In R. A. Spinello, H. T. T. Jones & B. Sudbury (Eds. ), CyberEthics.
16. Barger, R. N. 2001. Philosophical belief systems. Retrieved 15th November 2010, from http://www. nd. edu/~rbarger/philblfs. html
17. Eysenbach, G. 2005. Design and evaluation of consumer health information websites In D. Lewis, G. Eysenbach, R. Kukafka, H. Jimison & Z. Stavri (Eds. ), Consumer Health Informatics. New York: Springer.
18. Boyer, C. et al. 1998. The Health On the Net Code of Conduct for medical and health Websites. Computers in Biology and Medicine 28, 603–610.
19. Anonymus. 2000. e-Health Ethics Initiative - e-Health Code of Ethics. Journal of Medical Internet Research.
20. Anonymous. 2000. Health Internet Ethics: Ethical Principles For Offering Internet Health Services to Consumers. Retrieved 10th November 2010, from http://www. highbeam. com/doc/1G1-61924654. html
21. Rainbow, C. 2002. Descriptions of Ethical Theories and Principles. Retrieved 1st December 2010, from http://www. bio. davidson. edu/people/kabernd/indep/carainbow/Theories. htm
22. Rosenberg, A. 2008. Philosophy of social science (3 ed. ). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
23. Ridley, A. 1998. Beginning Bioethics. New York: St. Martin's Press.
24. Shannon, C. E. and Weaver, W. 1963. The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Urbana, IL: Univ. Illinois Press.
25. Zhou and Zang. 2007. An Ontology-Supported Misinformation Model: Toward a Digital Misinformation Library. IEEE Transactions, 37(5).
26. McCornack, S. A. 1992. Information manipulation theory. Communication Monographs, 59(1), 1-16.
27. Archer, D. and Akert, R. M. 1980. The encoding of meaning: A test of three theories of social interaction. Sociological Inquiry, 50(3/4), 393-419.
28. Kuhn, T. S. 1962. The structure of scientific revolutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
29. Glanz, K. et al. 2008. Theory, Research, and Practice in Health Behavior and Health Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Online Health Information Ethics Ethical Analysis