It is difficult to argue that consumers are maximizing their welfare by consuming trans fats, particularly because the production and taste costs of replacing them do not outweigh the health benefits.
Medical stewardship is a way of describing a relatively new obligation to maximize health care resources. A professionwide conversation about its meaning and value is needed.
A discussion of the ethical issues raised by a patient’s request for off-label, prophylactic bariatric surgery to prevent diabetes mellitus type 2 (DM type 2).