Bioethicist Bruce Jennings examines the changing role of physicians in end-of-life care, from paternalistic decision maker to advisor-technician and half-way back.

Physicians do not have to give therapies or perform procedures that they judge to be futile and Catholic patients have the moral right to determine what is extraordinary or ordinary care.

The greatest pressure to resuscitate the extremely low-birth-weight infant often results from successful marketing efforts that lead families to expect that their premature infants will be cute and healthy.

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.

Expanding the numbers of physicians with disabilities would facilitate patient-centered care for those who need similar accommodations.

Some disability advocates take issue with the “normalization” goals of the medical model of rehabilitation, but expressions of that position can be dismissive of rehabilitationists’ efforts to remediate oppressive functional deficits.

Clinicians can practice disability humility by developing social understandings of disability. This can help clinicians improve communication and express respect for patients’ authority about their experiences.

Refusal of pediatric euthanasia can be considered iatrogenic insofar as it inadvertently prolongs patient suffering, but attitudes differ cross-culturally.

Authentic partnerships with people with dementia motivate full social participation and resist fatalism around experiences of illness.

Clinician-family communication in surgical intensive care units should focus on reducing value incongruence and nonbeneficial operations.