Medical Ethics Advisor – March 1, 2013
March 1, 2013
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Predictive testing in minors: A new — and growing — ethical challenge for providers
Virtually any predictive test that can be done on an adult can be done on a minor, from tests for Huntingtons disease to breast and ovarian cancer to schizophrenia, but the question is not whether we can, but whether we should, says John Lantos, MD, director of the Childrens Mercy Bioethics Center in Kansas City, MO. -
Real-time consults meet needs of ED doctors, but rarely exist
Ethics consults typically involve intensive care unit patients where issues can be thoroughly examined over a lengthy period of time, but what if a provider has minutes instead of days to make a decision? -
Novel model provides "stat" ED ethics consults
A rapid response model for ethics consultations in the emergency department (ED) was developed at The Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada, using terminology that ED clinicians familiar with rapid response teams can relate to. -
Providers’ obligation: Protect both patients and society
Unfounded and ineffective excesses in the use of involuntary commitment proceedings could result from the publics horror over recent mass shootings, according to John Z. Sadler, MD, Daniel W. Foster, MD, professor of medical ethics and professor of psychiatry and clinical sciences at University of Texas (UT) Southwestern in Dallas, TX, pointing to the sociological concept of the outrage dynamic, which emerges in the face of rare but horrific tragedies. -
Providers face these ethical challenges with commitment
The need to protect others from a potentially harmful patient is a pressing ethical issue not just for health care providers, but for society to contemplate at this juncture, according to Gary E. Jones, PhD, JD, professor in the Philosophy Department at University of San Diego (CA). -
Online behaviors need ethical clarification
There is low consensus among state medical boards as to whether derogatory speech toward patients, showing alcohol use without intoxication, and providing clinical narratives without violation of confidentiality constitute a violation of online professionalism, according to a recent study. -
Ethical responses to surreptitious recording
Is a patient recording a physician without the doctors knowledge? If so, the reason could be that the patient simply wants to remember complicated discharge instructions, or that he or she intends to use the information as evidence against the physician in a legal proceeding.