Annette Hanson, MD, Ron Pies, MD, and Mark Komrad, MD
Authors respond to “How Should Physicians Care for Dying Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis?” by arguing that patients’ motives for accessing death with dignity laws should be thoroughly explored and that temporarily limiting patient autonomy can promote well-being at the end of life.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(11):E1107-1109. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.1107.
Alexander Craig, MPhil and Elizabeth Dzeng, MD, PhD, MPH
Responding to “Added Points of Concern about Caring for Dying Patients,” authors argue that physicians’ refusal to prescribe lethal drugs in accordance with states’ death with dignity laws could damage patient-physician relationships and harm patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(11):E1110-1112. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.1110.
Jessica Pierce, PhD, Marc Bekoff, PhD, Hope Ferdowsian, MD, MPH, Barbara J. King, PhD, and L. Syd M. Johnson, PhD
Our letter objects to the inclusion, in the April issue, of "Answers to Patient, Student, and Clinician Questions About How Animals Are Slaughtered and Used for Food," by Temple Grandin.
AMA J Ethics. 2023;25(6):E461-463. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2023.461.
When Hans Castorp, the protagonist in Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, receives a miniature X-ray print, he acquires a passport to what Susan Sontag describes as the “kingdom of the ill.” Hans knows he is ill because the X-ray declares it so, and his doctor merely shows him how to see the proof in the picture.
Is our generation of physicians somehow “weaker” because we’d rather not spend our entire lives at the office? Physicians who trained and practiced under more grueling conditions wonder how we expect to be competent physicians if we don’t work at it?