Being undocumented is a risk factor for mental illness, and immigration status relates prominently to overall health. That’s enough to consider it protected health information under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Privacy Rule.
AMA J Ethics. 2019; 21(1):E32-37. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.32.
Physicians should provide women considering abortion after Down syndrome screening with unbiased information and not attempt to influence their decision.
AMA J Ethics. 2016; 18(4):359-364. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.4.ecas1-1604.
Labels commonly used in clinical settings, like “elective” or “therapeutic,” influence how we think about the justifiability of abortion. We talk with Professor Katie Watson and Dr Maryl Sackeim about how the language clinicians use to describe abortion can affect patients’ experiences and even cause harm.
Efrat Lelkes, MD, Angira Patel, MD, MPH, Anna Joong, MD, and Jeffrey G. Gossett, MD
Current policy requires separate informed consent for some Public Health Service increased-risk donors, and this can make shared decision making harder.
AMA J Ethics. 2020; 22(5):E401-407. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.401.
Shared decision making honors patient autonomy, particularly for preference-sensitive care decisions and even when patients have impaired decision-making capacity.
AMA J Ethics. 2020; 22(5):E358-364. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.358.
One recent essay suggests that emphasis on social justice in medical education is done at the expense of clinicians’ technical competency. This is a response to that stance.
AMA J Ethics. 2020; 22(3):E253-254. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.253.
Professor john powell joins us for this special edition of Ethics Talk to discuss how a lens of “othering and belonging” can help us navigate our obligations to and relationships with each other, especially during this COVID-19 pandemic.
Legacy patients are so-called because their opioid use behaviors express past, aggressive opioid prescribing by a clinician. Managing their pain and dependence justly is ethically complex.
AMA J Ethics. 2020; 22(8):E651-657. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2020.651.