In this article, the author proposes to define and distinguish the notions of morals, of deontology and of ethics as applied to the medical field. Deontology and ethics are then investigated within the framework of the psychiatric treatment of suicidal adolescents. This type of therapeutic situation repeatedly and violently confronts the caregivers with deontological and ethical questions.
A clinical vignette allows us to show some modes of ethical questioning, a questioning which is indispensable to the elaboration of a care-giving action.