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.
A portrait illuminates a metaphor for maldistribution of burden of disease, risk exposure, and long-standing inequity in health laid bare to the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AMA J Ethics. 2021;23(3):E283-284. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2021.283.
American visual and narrative representations of Native experiences suggest an obligation to look on 19th-century White American artists’ romanticizations of those experiences with humility.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(10):E898-903. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.898.
A physician responds to a previous article about the differences between using a commercial laboratory and a smaller hospital or pathology group lab for dermatological tests.
During the 1960s and '70s, the iconography of ads for antipsychotic drugs changed from former depictions of docile white women patients to depictions of hostile black men, reflecting transformations in how American culture viewed race and mental illness.
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.