When patients are unable to express their wishes and do not have surrogates or advance directives, which and whose values should inform decision making for them? We discuss ethical complexities of caring for unrepresented patients.
Shared decision making is practically difficult to implement in mental health practice but remains an ethical ideal for motivating therapeutic capacity.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(5):E446-451. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.446.
Frances Grimstad, MD, MS and Elizabeth Boskey, PhD, MPH, MSSW, LICSW
Gender-affirming surgery for teens is growing as a field. Norms about who should be involved, to what extent, and for which health decisions are still evolving.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(5):E452-457. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.452.
Katherine Gentry, MD, MA and Aaron Wightman, MD, MA
A patient’s refusal of tracheostomy during an anticipated difficult intubation prompts critical questions about how to best express respect for a pediatric patient’s autonomy and whether and when deviation from standard of care is clinically and ethically appropriate.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E683-689. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.683.
Dr Vivek H. Murthy joins Ethics Talk to discuss loneliness as a public health threat and the connection between loneliness, public health responsiveness, and the health of our democracy.
Gregory C. Gray, MD, MPH, Laura A. Pulscher, PhD, MSc, and Hisham O. Alsharif, MBBS
Since the 1990s, multiple infectious diseases have “spilled over” from nonhuman animals to infect humans and cause significant global morbidity and mortality.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(2):E122-131. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.122.