As high-tech care decisions led to value clashes in hospital corridors, ethics committees developed to respond to diverse viewpoints, families’ concerns, and clinicians’ moral distress. They now exist in almost all US health care organizations.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(5):546-553. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.5.mhst1-1605.
The American Medical Association named alcoholism and addiction as illnesses during the 20th century. Obesity, smoking, and motor vehicle safety were also named as public health issues and targeted in poster advertising campaigns.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(12):E1201-1211. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.1201.
Clinicians tend to view obesity as a disease, while members of the body positivity movement value their bodies as they are. Should clinicians treat obesity as a disease in patients who don’t see themselves as ill?
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(12):E1195-1200. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.1195.
The AMA’s Council on Rural Health (1945-1975) collaborated with domestic health care organizations in the mid-20th century to improve access to health care in rural areas.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(3):E248-252. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.248.
The causes of many health behaviors are deeply rooted in our culture, and using a counseling model that assumes individual control and responsibility for these behaviors can cause patients to feel hectored instead of helped.
The pauses the transplant community has taken, at various times throughout the history of transplantation, to make sure that transplantation was truly a boon to patients represent genuine ethical engagement.
“Difficult” patient-physician encounters have roots in uncertainty about individuals’ trustworthiness, clinicians’ skills and training, and medical science.
AMA J Ethics. 2017;19(4):391-398. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.4.mhst1-1704.