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.

AMA Journal of Ethics theme editor Karel-Bart Celie, a second-year medical student at Columbia University School of Medicine, interviewed Joseph J. Fins, MD, about the work of ethics committees and consultants as they pursue professionalization and respond to changes in health care organization and practice.

Dr Veronica Hutchison joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Dr Eve Espey: “How Should IUD Placement Pain Be Described and Managed?”

Dr Suzanne Minor joins Ethics Talk to discuss her article, coauthored with Arianna Tapia and Dr Sarah E. Stumbar: “Abortion in the Nineteenth Century Through the Lens of Ann Lohman.”

Teddie Bernard joins Ethics Talk to discuss their cartoon: Childless by Choice.

Dr Mónica Lalanda joins Ethics Talk to discuss her comic: “There’s No Heartbeat.”

Dr Olivia Kates talks about appropriate use of antibiotics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Medically futile/inappropriate treatments and rationing have distinct ethical justifications and applications and require separate policies.

Direct sterilization by means of tubal ligation is morally unacceptable in Catholic bioethics but other procedures that result in indirect sterilization may be acceptable under certain conditions.

Physicians can fulfill their professional responsibilities to patients when those responsibilities conflict with moral commitments of the hospital or clinic where the patient encounter occurs.