As a matter of medical ethics, physicians must advocate for their vulnerable patients and medical schools should offer training in advocacy and activism.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(1):8-15. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.1.ecas1-1701.
Critical skills required to weigh decisions with serious consequences, manipulate information rationally, and choose wisely are skills that are likely to be impaired by frontal lobe injury that results in personality change.
Richard Weinmeyer, JD, MA, MPhil, Annalise Norling, Margaret Kawarski, and Estelle Higgins
Although the Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974 is effective in reducing contaminants to safe levels in public drinking water, its administration and enforcement poses challenges.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(10):1018-1026. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.10.hlaw1-1710.
Giving undocumented immigrants and those with DACA status (DREAMers) access to health care and medical education enables them to contribute to these systems.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(3):221-233. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.3.peer1-1703.
The meaning of “disability” has shifted with US public policy changes over time. People with disability are protected under civil rights law, and open questions remain about whether and when policy-level interventions and reasonable accommodations create equal opportunity.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(10):1025-1033. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.10.pfor2-1610.
Pamela B. Teaster, PhD, MA, MS and Al O. Giwa, LLB, MD, MBA, MBE
Since ageism contributes to global mental health inequity among older people, responding to their needs should be a clinical, ethical, and policy priority.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(10):E765-770. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.765.