Preventing bad outcomes for teens and their offspring was the impetus behind confidential care for reproductive health. Requiring parental involvement created an obstacle to the provision of necessary care.
Amanda Fakih, MHSA and Kayte Spector-Bagdady, JD, MBE
Testing everyone for everything identifies more fetal conditions, but confusion persists about whether clinicians should leave screening decisions to patients.
AMA J Ethics. 2019;21(10):E858-864. doi:
10.1001/amajethics.2019.858.
Two bioethicists argue that prenatal disability screening promotes negativity toward the disabled and gives parents the ability to selectively form families.
A philosophy professor argues that prenatal genetic testing allows potentially painful afflictions to be discovered prior to birth and does not unjustly discriminate against disabled people.
Mahesh Krishnamurthy, MD and Michael L. Freedman, MD
Physicians need to be aware of the cautions required with use of low molecular weight heparin and unfractionated heparin and perform a risk-benefit analysis before prescribing them to patients.
The AMA's Code of Medical Ethics' contains a large collection of opinions regarding organ donation and transplantation that continue to shape the ethics discussion surrounding these topics.
Physicians need to exhaust every possible alternative to bring about political changes before resorting to breaking the law as an act of civil disobedience.