Redefining merit can promote meaningful inclusion and express institutional leadership in addressing social justice.

Retention, student progression, and career advancement milestones are at least as important as admissions in promoting just medical education opportunity.

Diversity standards in medical education accreditation do not guarantee diversity but stimulate schools’ activities to recruit and retain diverse students and faculty.

For many physicians, lack of understanding about brain death leads to confusion and muddles interactions with patients’ loved ones at the end of life.

Since 1995, the American Academy of Neurology has provided guidelines for brain death determination, but nationwide adherence to these guidelines has been incomplete.

Lobbying, maintaining diagnostic skill, participating in national societies, and contributing to robust discourse can influence practice and policy.

Criteria in statutes and tests used to diagnose brain death don’t always jibe, and this can undermine public trust in death pronouncements.

Dr Ariane Lewis discusses how we can navigate uncertainty and ambiguity about brain death by understanding clinical criteria for brain death determination and how our approaches to death are culturally and socially situated.

Dr Adela Valdez joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Lala Forrest, Alessandra Jimenez, and Dr Kim-Thu Pham: “How Should Medical Schools Foster Equity and Inclusion in Admissions?”

Dr Tonya Fancher joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Marjorie Westervelt, Dr Darius Billingsley, and Maya London: “Three Things Schools Should Do to Make Advancement Assessment Just”