Professor Rebecca Feinberg joins Health By Law to discuss the Alabama Supreme Court decision in LePage v Center for Reproductive Medicine and the legal, clinical, and ethical implications of embryonic personhood.
Physicians have a responsibility to balance patient confidentiality and full disclosure to the family of adolescent patients with eating disorders in order to provide optimal treatment.
Preventing bad outcomes for teens and their offspring was the impetus behind confidential care for reproductive health. Requiring parental involvement created an obstacle to the provision of necessary care.
There is evidence that children who are unaware of their life-threatening diagnoses do not experience any less distress and anxiety than those who are told, and in some cases they may actually experience more.
Physician behavior that generates a patient complaint and ultimately leads to disciplinary action is both legally and ethically problematic—violating both regulatory rules and professional codes.
AMA J Ethics. 2015;17(5):448-455. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2015.17.5.pfor1-1505.
Treatment decisions in high-risk situations require a dynamic relationship between doctor and patient in which patient preferences and clinician recommendations contribute equally in shaping a final treatment decision.