Physicians new to a case might object to an established care plan. Practice variation, clinical momentum, and how value is assigned by different parties to acute care and comfort measures can each contribute to conflict in these cases.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E699-707. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.699.
Thoughtful design can welcome patients’ families’ roles in promoting healing. At the same time, clinicians’ need for functionality and privacy is critical. How ought these considerations be balanced in designing the spaces where patient care takes place?
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(1):73-76. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.18.1.sect1-1601.
Minors, including those with autism, have the right in certain states to make decisions about their own medical care provided they meet certain criteria. Even in cases in which the “mature minor exception” does not apply, physicians should actively engage patients in discussion of their treatment.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(4):305-309. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.4.ecas2-1504.
Michael J. O’Brien, MD and William P. Meehan III, MD
It is unclear whether the decreased risk of injury associated with prohibiting a teenage boy from playing football outweighs the benefits to his health and well-being of allowing him to participate.
The duty of forensic psychiatrists is to serve as objective experts to courts, but special circumstances in juvenile forensic evaluations and expectations about the patient-physician relationship may encourage confusion between the roles of forensic evaluator and treating psychiatrist.
Some treatments of childhood cancer can cause infertility in adulthood. What should be the roles of physicians in helping parents decide whether, when, and what their child is told about this risk?
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(5):426-435. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.5.ecas2-1705.