AMA Journal of Ethics

Undocumented patients in the United States with end-stage renal disease receive “compassionate” dialysis. Such patients oscillate between being marginally well and “ill enough” to receive dialysis while clinicians wrestle with complicity in a system that both offers and withholds life-saving therapy.

The weight of mentors’ burnout born by students is depicted in this image of arms entangling anguished faces.

The 3 drawings in this series illustrate how patients’ fears and suffering—generated by dental pain, chemotherapy, or lack of health insurance—can be counterbalanced by the foundational ethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, respect for autonomy, and justice.

This drawing of two hands—one holding pills and another, a rosary—illustrates how clinicians seeking to provide compassionate care must balance maintaining their professional boundaries with understanding of patients’ spirituality.

Images of roadside memorials offer alternatives to representing patients in a trauma bay “scene.”

This comic on the opioid crisis portrays patients’ struggles and physicians’ roles in harm reduction.

This photorealistic illustration considers the recent wrongful arrest of University of Utah Hospital nurse Alex Wubbels.