Clinicians have an ethical obligation to promote health equity in their communities. This month, we discuss how clinicians worked to expose the water crisis in Flint, and explore ways that clinicians can combat systemic injustice and promote health equity.
Postmastectomy breast reconstruction should aim at the appearance of the patient’s native breast (or normal anatomy), although tattooing is also an option.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(4):366-371. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2018.20.4.msoc1-1804.
Principles of respect for autonomy, beneficence, and nonmaleficence guide trauma-informed care. Care ethics should also support this framework for responding to the health needs of trafficked patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(1):80-90. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.1.msoc2-1701.
Interprofessional collaboration is a vital part of medical education. When a medical student resists learning from a nurse-midwife on a rotation, how should an academic medical faculty member respond?
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(9):898-902. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.9.ecas2-1609.
The stigma associated with HIV has diminished with its spread among the heterosexual population and the development of effective treatments. This normalization may justify assuming a more traditional public health perspective about mandatory prenatal screening.
Although effective, opioid agonist therapy is associated with stigma and thus underutilized for treatment of opioid use disorder in incarcerated settings.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(9):922-930. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.9.stas1-1709.
Gerald M. Oppenheimer, PhD, MPH and Ronald Bayer, PhD
The alarm generated by the AIDS epidemic left civil liberties proponents fearful that traditional public health responses might be imposed on newly susceptible or infected populations.