Emergency medical consultations share with other emergencies the need for prompt action, potentially without information or tools ordinarily available.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(5):479-484. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.5.ecas1-1605.
In order to successfully resolve ethical conflicts, bioethics consultants must pay attention to process and heed stakeholders’ perspectives and values.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(5):485-492. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.5.ecas2-1605.
Dr Anna L. Westermair joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Manuel Trachsel: “Moral Intuitions About Futility as Prompts for Evaluating Goals in Mental Health Care.”
Dr Helen Stanton Chapple joins Ethics Talk to talk about teaching health professions students and trainees about acknowledging and realizing dying in a healthy way.
The physician must help patients understand that all options—further testing, surgery, no action—carry risks and benefits. Disclosing the statistical probability of injury and other possible outcomes might help, but it can also hinder the process.
After assessing the reasons for a patient’s unrealistic hopefulness in the face of clear understanding, a clinician may believe that significant harm will come to the patient if he or she does not acknowledge the seriousness of the illness.