The organ transplantation system is viewed as one of our most equitable health care services, but poor patients are effectively excluded by policy that denies Medicaid coverage of post-transplant immunosuppressant medication.

Plastic surgeons who use patient images for online advertising should ensure informed consent and not exploit the patient-physician relationship for gain.

Disclosure of resident involvement in procedures should be integral to informed consent to ensure patient understanding and voluntary decision making.

Overlapping surgeries are ethical provided the attending physician discloses the role of the trainee and oversees critical portions of the surgeries.

Physicians’ ethical obligations to disclose conflicts of interest to patients and to obtain their informed consent for treatment are particularly critical when proposed treatments are experimental.

Proliferation of innovative procedures and treatments in surgery has led to novel and distinct ethical challenges. Medicine can learn from plastic surgeons’ approaches to informed consent and potentially harmful treatments.

Medical tourism creates an ethical dilemma for domestic physicians who wish to provide continuity of care but avoid liability in a malpractice suit.

Shackling incarcerated surgery patients is unnecessary for safety and undermines patients’ trust.

Postmastectomy breast reconstruction should aim at the appearance of the patient’s native breast (or normal anatomy), although tattooing is also an option.

A highly coordinated team effort stabilizes and manages victims of polytrauma.