Timothy Cavanaugh, MD, Ruben Hopwood, MDiv, PhD, and Cei Lambert, MFA
The informed consent model for gender-affirming medical treatment emphasizes patient autonomy in choosing care without involving mental health professionals.
B. Rashmi Borah, Nicolle K. Strand, JD, MBioethics, and Kata L. Chillag, PhD
The Bioethics Commission’s recommendations to include research participants with impaired consent capacity provide an ethical foundation for neuroscience.
The American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards’ guidelines for online medical professionalism apply existing norms of communication and confidentiality to new settings but will need to be modified in light of technological advances and unanswered questions.
Networking with a friend to help a patient gain employment is not unethical as long as confidentiality is maintained and the patient grants his or her doctor permission to discuss the situation with the friend.
Allan B. Peetz, MD, Nicholas Sadovnikoff, MD, and Michael F. O’Connor, MD
Because of their serious medical conditions and the nature of the treatments, patients who are candidates for extracorporeal life support may not be able to give properly informed consent for the treatment.
Although there are valid reasons to suspend do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders during surgery, the decision to do so should be discussed with patients and should take into account their goals and objectives.
Withholding information from patients during an informed consent process is ethically unacceptable. Patients may restrict the amount of information they wish to receive or designate someone else to receive the information for them.
When a would-be living organ donor wants to accept risk in the name of altruism when there is little chance for benefit or significant chance for harm, physicians are justified in limiting that altruism.