The National Advisory Board on Social Welfare and Health Care Ethics ETENE operates under the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. It was set up in 1998. Initially its brief concerned ethical issues in health care, but in 2009 this was broadened to include social welfare.

The Advisory Board was set up pursuant to the Act on the Status and Rights of Social Welfare Clients (812/2000, 657/2009) and the Act on the Status and Rights of Patients (785/1992, 658/2009). The duties and membership of the Advisory Board were defined by Government Decree 667/2009. The Government appoints the members of the Advisory Board for a term of four years.

During the 2010-2014 term, the Advisory Board is focusing on promoting transparent and ethically sustainable operating practices in client welfare and patient care, and on how clients/patients should be encountered in social welfare and health care. Particular attention is being paid to ethical issues related to promoting health and wellbeing, the everyday lives of citizens, and the content and organisation of social welfare and health care services.

In the pages we have collected legislation that determines duties and composition of ETENE and news about legislation and other norms concerning social welfare and health care and their amendments.

• Act on the status and rights of patients(785/1992 English Translation) (original 785/1992,  658/2009)
• Act on the status and rights of the client of social care ( 812/2000,  657/2009)
• The Govermental Decree on the National Advisory Board on Social Welfare and Health Care Ethics (in Finnish)( 667/2009)