When patients are unable to express their wishes and do not have surrogates or advance directives, which and whose values should inform decision making for them? We discuss ethical complexities of caring for unrepresented patients.

Dr Laura Guidry-Grimes helps us consider whether and which decisions can be shared with people experiencing mental illnesses.

Dr Susan Veldheer joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Daniel R. George: "Strategies to Help Health Care Organizations Execute Their Food System Leadership Responsibilities.”

Lloyd Duplechan joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Dr David Sine: “Roles of Environmental Services Workers’ Wages and Status in Patient Safety.”

Dr Shawn G. Gibbs joins Ethics Talk to discuss industrial hygiene, biocontainment, and how to build more sustainable health systems. 

David Simon, JD joins Ethics Talk to help untangle economic incentives driving industrialization of meat.

Debbie Berkowitz joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Anna D. Goff, Dr Kathleen Marie Fagan, and Dr Monica L. Gerrek: "Do Clinics in Meat and Poultry Plants Endanger Workers?”

In the September 2014 issue on physicians as agents of social change, Dr. Audiey Kao, editor-in-chief of Virtual Mentor interviewed Dr. Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development or USAID.

AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Emily Johnson, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, interviewed Susan Mizner, JD, about some merits, drawbacks, and alternatives to guardianship.

Dr Christy A. Rentmeester joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article: “You Are What You Eat . . . and What You Take Orally, Intravenously, or Topically”