The AMA Code of Medical Ethics' opinions related to decision-making capacity and competence and surrogate decision making.

When evaluating a 10-year-old with leukemia and chemo-induced heart failure for VAD placement, a team considers what to do.

Decision aids could help clinicians know when to request ethics consultation or re-evaluate blood product usage in a specific patient care situation.

Women with intellectual disabilities should not be sedated for a pap smear without their assent, and the test’s risks and benefits should be weighed.

Women with intellectual disabilities should not be sedated for a pap smear without their assent, and the test’s risks and benefits should be weighed.

Legal inconsistencies and variation in end-of-life options generate disparities in care for unrepresented patients.

Physicians, committees, and guardians all make decisions for unrepresented patients in the US. This article considers a “tiered” approach as an alternative.

Decisions for patients who are unrepresented and incarcerated could be made by different classes of possible decision makers “inside” and “outside.”

When patients are unable to express their wishes and do not have surrogates or advance directives, which and whose values should inform decision making for them? We discuss ethical complexities of caring for unrepresented patients.

A guardian’s request to sterilize a woman with intellectual disabilities is not ethically justifiable unless the woman assents and it is to her benefit.