David Collier, MD, PhD, Ronald M. Perkin, MD, MA, and Joseph R. Zanga, MD
The legal definitions of child neglect and child abuse are not as clear cut when faced with the issue of whether parents should be held responsible for failing to follow weight-loss plans for a morbidly obese child.
Physicians are obligated in many jurisdictions to perform life-sustaining treatments on premature infants with serious developmental or physical impairments, even if it goes against the parents' wishes.
Although the State Children's Health Insurance Plan was enacted to provide health care to children who are uninsured or are not eligible for Medicaid, a number of factors are preventing the system from meeting the health care needs of all of the nation's children.
Physicians should encourage pharmaceutical companies to make socially responsible funding decisions and take an active role in setting biomedical research priorities by advocating for fair and effective allocations of public and private biomedical R & D investments.
The ethical questions surrounding the recruitment of patients for clinical trials become more complicated when the recruiting physicians receive financial benefits for each patient enrolled.
The financial generosity of the pharmaceutical industry to provide funding for medical education tempts a compromise of professional standards and ethics.
Two physicians assert that pharmaceutical companies' sponsorship of clinical conferences for residents and physicians represent a conflict of interest.