Medical Ethics Advisor – October 1, 2005
October 1, 2005
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End-of-life issues in pediatrics: ‘No one expects children to die’
When a frail elderly patient is treated for a serious, chronic illness such as cancer, death is naturally assumed to be a possible outcome. But death is not so easy to accept in young patients, as any health care professional who has had pediatric patients die knows. -
What is ethical when your patient may be a terrorist?
Allegations that prisoners of war were tortured by American military interrogators at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, possibly with the complicity or knowledge of physicians working with interrogators, resurrected a question that has come up in every war for centuries: What role, if any, should health care practitioners play in the interrogation and torture of enemies of their government? -
Avoid putting self-image, pride ahead of patient
When a physician discovers that he or she has been party to a medical error that caused harm to a patient, the realization is followed by a succession of emotions that, if not managed appropriately, can cause the physician to react in a way that ruptures the physician/ patient relationship and possibly precipitate a malpractice lawsuit. -
Despite efforts, racial gap still plagues health care
A recently published study of the effects of managed care on delivery of health care and screenings to enrollees found that it appears to improve care across the board. Particularly heartening are indications that the disparity in care given to white enrollees vs. black enrollees was narrowed sharply. -
Med students cite lack of training in medical ethics
More than one-third of American medical students are not required to study medical ethics, according to survey results compiled by the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), the largest independent medical student organization in the country.