The ad hoc capacity granted underage patients to consent to certain medical services cannot be allowed to thwart the reason it is granted in the first place—to protect the health of minors.
Philip Zachariah, MD, Gregory S. Blaschke, MD, MPH, and Melissa Weddle, MD, MPH
Physicians should support the sexual orientation of LBGT youth while educating and developing a trusting relationship with the parents, who may pose religious objections and favor ineffective and potentially harmful therapies.
Confidential care for adolescents supports their emerging autonomy, engagement in health care decision making, and access to and use of reproductive health services.
The AMA Code of Medical Ethics' opinion on adolescent care affirms competent minors' right to confidentiality except in situations for which confidentiality for adults may be breached.
This month theme issue editor, Trahern Jones, a fourth-year student at Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota, spoke with Dr. Edward Laskowski about the use of performance-enhancing drugs and substances among athletes today.
When a severely ill child comes into the emergency room, assent for emergency care is no more required than is parental permission. Conveying the needed care is the top priority.
Is it ethical to create and advertise, either publicly or during office visits, package deals that offer patients an incentive to have procedures they are not already seeking and might not have considered?
Within the patient-physician relationship, the request for neuroenhancement becomes a chief concern, and the physician has a duty to take a history and perform a physical exam to determine whether the patient’s current level of function represents significant change.
Those who care for adolescents must advocate for timely disclosure of HIV diagnosis since the negative effects of late disclosure include social isolation, anxiety, loss of trust, and depression.