A major contributor to the lack of medicines in developing countries is an intellectual property regime that allows proprietary drug companies with intellectual property monopolies to charge high prices and maximize profit.
Undocumented patients in the United States with end-stage renal disease receive “compassionate” dialysis. Such patients oscillate between being marginally well and “ill enough” to receive dialysis while clinicians wrestle with complicity in a system that both offers and withholds life-saving therapy.
AMA J Ethics. 2018; 20(8):E778-779. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.778.
Judgmentalism applied to patients from poor and marginalized communities exacerbates health inequity and illuminates the importance of contextualizing a patient’s care.
AMA J Ethics. 2021; 23(2):E91-96. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2021.91.
Some refugees’ illness experiences preclude them from testifying and accurately representing their own interests during asylum adjudication proceedings.
AMA J Ethics. 2021; 23(2):E132-139. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2021.132.