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.
Professional society guidelines can be used to set standards for clinical practice instead of government. This approach could help if federal or state policymakers view discarding embryos as ethically equivalent to abortion.
AMA J Ethics. 2018;20(12):E1160-1167. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2018.1160.
Georgina Morley, PhD, MSc, RN and Annie Sharon Fox, MA
This series of 3 paintings of figures in a bath explores emotional responses of persons experiencing or responding to others’ moral distress. Intricately tied together and connected through time and space, the bodies represented suggest a complex web of relationships between clinicians and patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(5):E457-460. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.457.
Correctional facilities’ physician employees are at risk for burnout, posttraumatic stress, and suicide. Prison reform should address needs of inmates and staff.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(6):E540-545. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.540.
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.