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 Helen Stanton Chapple joins Ethics Talk to talk about teaching health professions students and trainees about acknowledging and realizing dying in a healthy way.

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 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.

How to resolve conflicts between hospital policy and the treatment recommendations for an individual patient.

How to resolve conflicts between hospital policy and the treatment recommendations for an individual patient.

Strategies for improving health care ethics consultation should appeal to key stakeholders in hospitals and not just the academic bioethics community.

As larger organizations become more influential in the health care sector, the Code can help physicians navigate those organizations’ influence on their practices.

As high-tech care decisions led to value clashes in hospital corridors, ethics committees developed to respond to diverse viewpoints, families’ concerns, and clinicians’ moral distress. They now exist in almost all US health care organizations.