Therapeutic misconception—a false belief that individuals will benefit from participating in research—can bias informed consent. Ethics consultants can help by engaging participants’ and researchers’ understandings of risks and benefits and by asking good questions about the influences of researchers’ enthusiasm.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(11):E1100-1106. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.1100.
A graphic memoir documents clinical and ethical disagreements and decision points throughout a paramedic team’s time with an incarcerated patient in labor.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(10):E902-903. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.902.
Ruth M. Farrell, MD, MA, Marsha Michie, PhD, Christopher T. Scott, PhD, Rebecca Flyckt, MD, and Mary LaPlante, MD
One reason for neglect of women’s health as patients and subjects has been restrictions on uterine transfer of modified human embryos, a boundary that has now been crossed.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(12):E1071-1078. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.1071.
This graphic storybook portrays an undocumented child in the United States who is denied fundamental human rights to health care, education, shelter, and food.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(1):E111-112. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.111.
Efrat Lelkes, MD, Angira Patel, MD, MPH, Anna Joong, MD, and Jeffrey G. Gossett, MD
Current policy requires separate informed consent for some Public Health Service increased-risk donors, and this can make shared decision making harder.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(5):E401-407. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.401.
How would gathering preclinical data and improving research infrastructure facilitate clearer definitions of “population vulnerability” and “risk acceptability”?
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(1):E43-49. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.43.
Weyinshet Gossa, MD, MPH and Michael D. Fetters, MD, MPH, MA
Cervical cancer has become rare in high-income countries but is a leading cause of mortality among women in low- and middle-income countries. This inequity is an epidemiological tragedy.
AMA J Ethics. 2020;22(2):E126-134. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.126.