False information undermines health and exacerbates disabilities. Constitutional rights to free speech come with responsibilities. Clinicians and citizens have duties to counter false health information.
AMA J Ethics. 2021;23(5):E432-433. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2021.432.
In this cartoon, a guilt-ridden, heavily scarred surgeon prepares to atone for his team’s failed attempts to save an innocent child victim of a mass shooting.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(7):E632-635. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.632.
This narrative information graphic contextualizes the lack of current maternal morbidity and mortality data in the United States since the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision in 2022.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(1):E92-93. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.92.
This comic invites readers to consider aesthetic and ethical intersections of how odds might be presented—even exaggerated—to cultivate fear in public health messaging.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(8):E643-645. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.643.
This multipaneled comic follows a woman robot preparing for a breast examination. Oil “leakage” recurs in the comic, suggesting its ethical importance in metaphorically representing a patient’s stress responses.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(8):E646-650. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.646.
During the 1960s and '70s, the iconography of ads for antipsychotic drugs changed from former depictions of docile white women patients to depictions of hostile black men, reflecting transformations in how American culture viewed race and mental illness.
Illustrations that have commented on medicine and society have evolved over the last 150 years from being judgmental and harsh towards racial and ethnic minorities to now emphasizing the positive aspects of diversity.