Emotions and the process of ethical decision-making.

Emotions play a central role in our daily lives. They influence our behavior as well as the development and direction of our relationships. Clinically, emotions may signal the presence of ethical conflicts between patients, physicians, and others involved in the patients' care. Emotions need to be recognized as physicians work toward empathic interactions, while both reason and emotion need to be integrated into the process of ethical decision making to ensure balanced outcomes.