When patients are unable to express their wishes and do not have surrogates or advance directives, which and whose values should inform decision making for them? We discuss ethical complexities of caring for unrepresented patients.

Dr Laura Guidry-Grimes helps us consider whether and which decisions can be shared with people experiencing mental illnesses.

Dr Rajesh R. Tampi joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Drs Aarti Gupta and Iqbal Ahmed: “Why Does the US Overly Rely on International Medical Graduates in Its Geriatric Psychiatric Workforce?”

AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor James Aluri, a third-year medical student at Johns Hopkins University, interviewed Dr. Autumn Fiester, PhD, about strategies for defusing “difficult” patient-clinician relationships.

Virtual Mentor issue editor Sophia Cedola, a medical student at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, interviewed Dr. Craig Blinderman about talking with patients who are terminally ill, asking him whether there are some key “do’s” and “don’ts” for having end-of-life conversations with patients and their families.

Harmful biases about people who are overweight persist even among professional care givers.

Dr Thaddeus M. Pope joins Health By Law to discuss updates to the Uniform Law Commission’s Health-Care Decisions Act.

Dr Noah Boton joins Ethics Talk to discuss his article, coauthored with Dr Jeffrey Larnard: “When Should Patients at the End of Life Get Antimicrobials?”

Dr Paris Adkins-Jackson proposes how to measure racism in academic health centers, as one responsibility of medicine is to rebuild trust with marginalized communities.

Dr Siân Lewis-Bevan joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Stephen Powell: “What Might the Past Suggest About Rural Emergency Services Amidst Critical Access Hospitals’ Decline?”