Private equity companies have no ethical or legal duties to patients and strive to maximize financial returns for their investors.

Private equity firms’ acquisition and management of physicians’ practices have been associated with increased cost and diminished quality.

Private equity investments in health care raise several clinical and ethical questions about private equity’s influence on clinicians’ practices.

Private equity firms exacerbate health inequity by driving hospital closures in historically underserved communities. Now nonprofit health systems are also vulnerable.

Most surgical inpatients who are incarcerated are not permitted to have visitors while hospitalized.

Safety-net hospitals care for patients who are incarcerated and are key environments in which surgical trainees learn to wield their professional autonomy.

The US has the most individuals who are incarcerated worldwide.

Incarceration history adds to the clinical and ethical complexity of surgical care for patients who require an ostomy, especially when secondary to trauma.

Surgical research involving patients who are incarcerated is fraught with ethical, logistical, and practical questions.

This article considers AMA Code of Medical Ethics’ opinions relevant to the care of patients who are incarcerated.