Revision of International Classification of Functioning,Disability and Health Ethical Guidelines

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is a classification instrument of the World Health Organization. It is the result of the revision of the concept of disability. Its aim is to classify health and functioning in the various domains of human life and to provide standard units of measurement for disability on a global basis. In the framework of the Multidisciplinary Research Network on Health and Disability in Europe (MURINET) project, a recent revision of the ICF ethical guidelines has been proposed by the Centre for Bioethics of the Universita`Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Although we are well aware that not everybody agrees with the ICF approach, in that they have objections concerning the biopsychosocial model on which it is founded, this commentary aims to illustrate the theoretical background on which this revision is based as well as to examine the ethical and practical implications of the perspective on disability which is at the basis of ICF.