Lack of ethical, legal, and clinical consensus about best practice sometimes combines with a poor clinical evidence base.

Patient-centered care means offering potentially beneficial interventions while avoiding retraumatizing a patient.

Vegan patients screened for vitamin and mineral deficiencies might benefit from supplements, but physicians are obliged to discuss lack of regulation in the supplement industry and possible risks.

Professional society guidelines can be used to set standards for clinical practice instead of government. This approach could help if federal or state policymakers view discarding embryos as ethically equivalent to abortion.

When should ECMO be started and stopped? This month’s Ethics Talk explores ethical challenges of ECMO use in end-of-life care.

Decision aids could help clinicians know when to request ethics consultation or re-evaluate blood product usage in a specific patient care situation.

Legal inconsistencies and variation in end-of-life options generate disparities in care for unrepresented patients.

The AMA Code of Medical Ethics discusses situations in which a surrogate is needed but not available to make health care decisions for a patient.

Noninvasive prenatal testing arguably constitutes a form of eugenics in a social context in which certain reproductive outcomes are not valued.

Helping patients mitigate their risk of chronic disease is key, but dietary supplements are risky.