With good planning and good will, medical professionals’ right of conscience and patients’ rights to controversial services can be both protected and accommodated.
A physician advocate who has taken public advocacy stances against the federal government while employed by the government talks about the conflicts that arise between medicine and politics.
False information undermines health and exacerbates disabilities. Constitutional rights to free speech come with responsibilities. Clinicians and citizens have duties to counter false health information.
AMA J Ethics. 2021;23(5):E432-433. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2021.432.
Refusals of psychotropic medication by detained criminal defendants raise conflicting dual loyalties for psychiatrists between the duty to treat a patient and the duty to protect society from that patient.
The case of Nancy Cruzan, a 25-year-old woman whose injuries from an automobile accident resulted in a persistent vegetative state, helped to empower people with end-of-life choices.