An ethical case concerns a 16-year-old girl suffering from systemic scleroderma with a poor prognosis and her father's cultural beliefs, which do not allow for discussions about end-of-life care.
A psychology professor stresses the importance of cultural competence and cultural sensitivity physicians in meeting the end-of-life care needs of an increasingly diverse patient population.
Readers are referred to an article by J.T. Berger in a 1998 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine and provided with a list of ethical questions to consider about culture and ethnicity in clinical care.