A guardian’s request to sterilize a woman with intellectual disabilities is not ethically justifiable unless the woman assents and it is to her benefit.

Mandating processes that are not evidence based generates distress among patients and clinicians, so physician advocacy in national, state, and local policymaking is key.

Successful implementation of initiatives to improve screening and access to health-promotion activities at minority-serving religious institutions requires partnering with faith-based organizations, adapting interventions, and leveraging organizational infrastructure and social networks.

Students and residents might not fully use available interpreter services due to time pressures and a lack of incentives from supervisors.

Physicians’ ethical obligation to ensure communities’ access to safe drinking water has roots in their expertise, social authority, and role as mediators.

AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Emily Johnson, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, interviewed Susan Mizner, JD, about some merits, drawbacks, and alternatives to guardianship.

Physician advocacy for climate change mitigation is justified by seven criteria including physicians’ efficacy, expertise, public trust, and proximity.

Climate change mitigation reforms of government policy, medical curricula, and health professions organizations should be the focus of physician advocacy.

Which distinctions between minimally conscious states and vegetative states should clinicians consider?

The adverse health effects of climate change should be the focus of physician advocacy efforts and of conversations between physicians and their patients.