Two commentaries respond to a case about apnea testing to confirm death by neurologic criteria.

Religious and cultural values can conflict with clinical standard practice and law.

Once focused on hospital liability, risk managers now navigate a broader set of enterprise risk management responsibilities.

Parents’ false beliefs can be engaged respectfully to motivate deliberations about shared values and goals, but refusal of clinically indicated treatment could warrant reporting.

Family presence during resuscitation of a child remains controversial and disagreement persists about whether and when potential benefits outweigh risks.

Mission statements offer limited benefit when patients do not have meaningful choices about where to seek care and can be misused.

The four-quadrant approach can illuminate ethical issues in burn care related to decision-making capacity, respect for autonomy, and medical futility.

Although identical twin-to-twin skin grafting has resulted in excellent survival rates in burn patients, the nature and scope of ethical decision making in monozygotic sibling skin grafting needs further examination.

Family presence in the trauma bay is not entirely analogous to family presence during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and requires a chaperone system.

Thoughtful design can welcome patients’ families’ roles in promoting healing. At the same time, clinicians’ need for functionality and privacy is critical. How ought these considerations be balanced in designing the spaces where patient care takes place?