Mandatory genetic testing of health care professionals could help structure health care organizations’ responses to a pandemic. Patients and more susceptible employees can benefit, and these benefits must be weighed against concerns about fairness, autonomy, genetic privacy, and potential loss of employment opportunities.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(9):E819-825. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.819.
Holly K. Tabor, PhD and Aaron Goldenberg, PhD, MPH
Rare genetic disease research has something to teach precision medicine about addressing some patients’ limited access to treatment. Health disparities exacerbated by high costs and limited availability of drugs can, perhaps, be mitigated when patient activism accelerates drug development.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(9):E834-840. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.834.
Targeted dosing to treat pediatric inflammatory bowel disease is challenging because dosing guidelines are based on data gathered from adult subjects of clinical trials. Patients’ families and health care organizations also incur high costs and must try to balance potential benefits against risks of ongoing monitoring.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(9):E841-848. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.841.
Rebekah Davis Reed, PhD, JD and Erik L. Antonsen, PhD, MD
Though the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s collection of disaggregated genetic data for occupational surveillance and research raises numerous privacy concerns, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 allows genetic information to be used to develop personal pharmaceuticals.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(9):E849-856. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.849.
The Holocaust and the racial hygiene doctrine that helped rationalize it still overshadow contemporary debates about using gene editing for disease prevention.
AMA J Ethics. 2021;23(1):E49-54. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2021.49.
Leah M. Marcotte, MD, Jeffrey Krimmel-Morrison, MD, and Joshua M. Liao, MD, MSc
Individuals can underperform in circumstances of shared accountability. In clinical settings, this is an unintended consequence of the health care sector’s complexity fragmentation.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(9):E802-807. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.802.
Given full information about the risks of long-term opioid therapy, patients often see the value of exploring other options rather than thinking their physicians are reluctant to prescribe narcotics for fear of litigation or regulatory action.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(3):202-208. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.3.ecas1-1503.
Dr Kimberly A. Singletary joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Marshall H. Chin: “What Should Antiracist Payment Reform Look Like?”