Clinicians and police are positioned to help persons experiencing homelessness, but little has been said about how their best impulses to serve could most productively overlap.
AMA J Ethics. 2021;23(11):E881-886. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2021.881.
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.
Physicians should go beyond basic medical diagnosis and treatment to offer support to families about the gamut of social and emotional issues that are involved with caring for a severely disabled child.
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.