Overturning this case’s precedent might result in clinicians claiming more religious exemptions and increased risk of harm to patients.

On this episode of Ethics Talk, Editorial Fellow Dr C. Alessandra Colaianni describes the creation of this month’s issue on palliative surgery, and Dr Wynne Morrison explains how to explore palliative surgical goal formation with children and their guardians.

From clinical, ethical, and public health standpoints, diversification is foundational to just responses to the health needs of a pluralistic nation.

There are fewer Black men in US medical schools today than in 1970, although their contributions are key to building medicine’s capacity to equitably promote healing.

Redefining merit can promote meaningful inclusion and express institutional leadership in addressing social justice.

Retention, student progression, and career advancement milestones are at least as important as admissions in promoting just medical education opportunity.

Diversity standards in medical education accreditation do not guarantee diversity but stimulate schools’ activities to recruit and retain diverse students and faculty.

The US Supreme Court has allowed race-conscious admissions when a school’s purpose is to diversify an incoming class but not to remediate inequity.

Schools are permitted to construct URiM definitions, suggesting the importance of regarding them as fluid works in progress as US demographics evolve.

Focus on diversity is critical, yet most US schools have failed to achieve racial-ethnic or economic diversity representative of the general US population.