Carmen Black Parker, MD, Amanda Calhoun, MD, MPH, Ambrose H. Wong, MD, MSEd, Larry Davidson, PhD, and Charles Dike, MBChB, MPH
Psychiatric emergencies, coping stress reactions, and iatrogenic injuries are not responded to with the same vigor as acute medical decompensation. That needs to change.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(11):E956-964. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.956.
Physicians have an obligation to consider a patient’s quality of life when making treatment decisions and should consider giving patients the options of withholding or withdrawing aggressive treatment if that treatment will not restore the kind of life the patient finds meaningful.
Preventing bad outcomes for teens and their offspring was the impetus behind confidential care for reproductive health. Requiring parental involvement created an obstacle to the provision of necessary care.