Situations in which the patient’s family seems not to be acting in good faith or the patient's suffering is uncontrollable are relatively rare and do not warrant giving physicians unilateral power to withhold or withdraw treatment in all cases of perceived medical futility.
Dawn M. Schocken, MPH, Amy H. Schwartz, PharmD, BCPS, and Frazier T. Stevenson, MD
Implementing nonhierarchical interprofessional teams in medical care will be more effective if incoming health professionals are trained to work in such groups.
Transparency about teaching hospitals’ educational mission respects patient autonomy and aligns patients’ interests with those of trainees and the public.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(6):537-543. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.6.ecas1-1706.
Lynn Monrouxe, PhD, Malissa Shaw, MSc, PhD, and Charlotte Rees, MEd, PhD
Students’ decision making about ethical dilemmas can be supported via education, faculty development, and structures for reporting professionalism lapses.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(6):568-577. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.6.medu1-1706.
Forcing parents to participate in treatment is unlikely to succeed. Seeking to optimize the therapeutic alliance between family and pediatrician is more likely to achieve the desired outcome—the child’s short- and long-term well-being.
Elizabeth Lee Daugherty, MD, MPH and Douglas B. White, MD, MA
Opportunities to advance scientific knowledge may arise during humanitarian crises, but their presence does not justify suspension of the ethical foundations governing human subjects research.