AMA Journal of Ethics

Vaping has been thought to be a safe, effective smoking cessation aid, but little evidence supports its value in mitigating tobacco use.

Empathic communication skills help motivate understanding of safety, significance of harms, impact on succeeding generations, and social consequences.

Clinician-researchers deeply invested in data gathering are still obliged to respect a patient-subject’s right to stop being in research.

Counseling a patient about reconstructive surgery for a traumatic and disfiguring injury requires special consideration.

Current evidence suggests how hospice and palliative care clinicians can help advocate for high-quality, end-of-life care for patients with obesity.

Regulations’ negative influence on patient-physician relationships can be mitigated by innovation in decision science.

A look at current literature and work by a statewide initiative can motivate development of policies that help respond to unrepresented patients’ needs.

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.

The AMA Code of Medical Ethics discusses situations in which a surrogate is needed but not available to make health care decisions for a patient.

Authors respond to “How Should Physicians Care for Dying Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis?” by arguing that patients’ motives for accessing death with dignity laws should be thoroughly explored and that temporarily limiting patient autonomy can promote well-being at the end of life.