PRACTICING nurses frequently engage in making ethical decisions in the course of their work, although they may not be consciously aware of it. Because they are involved with the funda mental human events of life's process, they encounter the many moral and ethical issues surrounding these events. While rarely in a position to control the actions nurses must decide own moral actions should be in a multitude of situations involving births, deaths, and suffering. And, because of the special nature of the nurse-patient relationship, they must support and sustain patients who are facing hard moral choices. As patient advocates and as ever present care givers, nurses must also support patients experiencing consequences of moral choices made for and about them by more powerful agents in the healthcare delivery system.