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Medical Ethics Advisor

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  • Providers need better info on preemie outcomes

    If they were better informed on the outcomes of premature infants, physicians might be more inclined to intervene more often, according to Annie Janvier, MD, PhD, FRCPC, a neonatologist and clinical ethicist practicing at St. Justine Hospital in Quebec and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Montreal.
  • Maternal obligations, rights during pregnancy

    Although the law is squarely on the side of the pregnant mother in maternal-fetal conflict, the ethics should be examined to determine how one reaches that conclusion, according to Mark R. Mercurio, MD, MA, a neonatologist at the Yale-New Haven (CT) Children's Hospital and director of the Yale Pediatric Ethics Program.
  • Abortion sparks contentious debate despite legalization in 1973

    No other bioethics topic stirs passionate debate, political controversy, and religious disapproval quite the way that abortion does and has since its legalization with a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Roe v. Wade in 1973.
  • Nun resigns following abortion decision

    Earlier this year, a nun, Sr. Margaret McBride, who served on the ethics committee at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix ultimately "resigned from her position as vice president of mission integration" at the institution, following what was described as a "tragic case" involving the "termination of an 11-week pregnancy," according to a statement from the hospital.
  • Practical ethics in neonatal EOL care

    [Editor's note: This article is based on a presentation at the 2010 Pediatrics Bioethics Conference hosted on July 23 and 24 by the Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics at Seattle Children's Hospital.]
  • U. of Minn. adopts new ethics policy

    In the wake of Sen. Charles Grassley's efforts to uncover and reduce conflicts of interest (COI) at academic medical institutions, some health care centers are re-examining their COI policies, and one of those is the University of Minnesota.
  • CMS proposes new rules for equal visitation

    The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed new rules for hospitals that would protect patients' right to choose their own visitors during a hospital stay, including visitors who are same-sex domestic partners, according to CMS.
  • Ethics, religious beliefs blend into political fray

    There's no doubt that the debate over abortion is an integral part of not only family-centered discussions, but also the debates that occur on the left, on the right, and various points in the center on the political continuum.
  • News Briefs

    A study published in the August issue of Health Affairs suggests that there are no differences in patient outcomes when anesthesia services are provided by certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs), physician anesthesiologists, or supervised by physicians, according to the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) in Park Ridge, IL.
  • Paternalism: Does it still have a place in modern medical practice?

    "The paternalistic model assumes that there are shared objective criteria for determining what is best. Hence the physician can discern what is in the patient's best interest with limited patient participation . . . the physician acts as the patient's guardian, articulating and implementing what is best for the patient...The conception of patient autonomy is patient assent, either at the time or later, to the physician's determinations of what is best.""Four Models of the Physician-Patient Relationship." JAMA. April 22/29, 1992 Vol 267, No. 16.