Physicians make patients aware of those interventions that they (the patients) may then refuse. In short, informed consent is less about patient decisions than it is about restraining physicians.
Undocumented patients in the United States with end-stage renal disease receive “compassionate” dialysis. Such patients oscillate between being marginally well and “ill enough” to receive dialysis while clinicians wrestle with complicity in a system that both offers and withholds life-saving therapy.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(8):E778-779. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.778.
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.
After years of funding disease-specific treatment, donation trends have shifted to support broader health systems infrastructure development. A remaining challenge is how to sustain antiretroviral therapy (ART) for patients in resource-poor regions.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(7):681-690. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.7.ecas3-1607.
Joelle I. Rosser, MD, MS, Orion X. Lavery, Rebecca C. Christofferson, PhD, MApSt, Juma Nasoro, Francis M. Mutuku, PhD, and A. Desiree LaBeaud, MD, MS
Organizations’ architecture and communities’ waste stream designs situate how well industrial hygiene practices support or undermine individuals’ and communities’ pathogenic vulnerability.
AMA J Ethics. 2024;26(2):E132-141. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2024.132.