U.S. and international medical organizations recommend against testing children for genetic diseases that occur after adolescence and for which no prevention or treatment is available.

There is a market for direct-to-consumer genetic testing and a need for better consumer information and more regulation of tests and testing laboratories.

A close study of a literary memoir can help resident physicians understand the complex, inextricable relationship between a patient’s autonomy and his vulnerability.

A medical student describes and comments on a case in which a patient who experienced complications following a cardiac catheterization wished to remain in the hospital until the injury to his groin was entirely healed.

The Levy Criteria neurological exam findings have a role in prognosis of patients with brain injuries.

Research on emergency room patients with life-threatening illness, conducted under the FDA-approved Exception From Informed Consent (EFIC) policy, does not further reduce the autonomy of such patients and offers potential benefit to those patients as well as others.

A medical student describes and comments on a case in which a patient who experienced complications following a cardiac catheterization wished to remain in the hospital until the injury to his groin was entirely healed.

Advance directives do not always resolve questions about the best care for patients who no longer have decision-making capacity; physicians and patient surrogates can take alternative approaches to arrive at the best care decision.

Adaptive, simulation-based Internet training sites with intelligent agents can offer medical students a virtual clinic for learning about the process and multiple outcomes of patient decision making.

Taking care of patients whose cultures, belief systems, and family hierarchy structures differ from those on which many U.S. laws and regulations involves strategies—particularly regarding end-of-life care and surrogate decision making.