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.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(4):365-372. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.4.ecas2-1604.
William M. Hart, MD, Patricia Doerr, MD, Yuxiao Qian, MD, and Peggy M. McNaull, MD
When errors happen, too often clinicians are at odds with each other about how to respond to a patient or a patient’s loved ones after that patient suffers harm.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(4):E298-304. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.298.
Corporatization in health care has complicated clinicians’ and organizations’ efforts to balance interests of individual patients against an organization’s bottom line.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(3):E187-192. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.187.