A first-year resident in obstetrics and gynecology is faced with legal and ethical issues when a patient who has been pregnant for 40 weeks requests induction of labor.
The case of Nancy Cruzan, a 25-year-old woman whose injuries from an automobile accident resulted in a persistent vegetative state, helped to empower people with end-of-life choices.
A new Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs policy explicitly forbids physicians-in-training from practicing life-saving interventions on newly deceased individuals without consent.