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Medical Ethics Advisor

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Articles

  • The right to withdraw: What does it really mean?

    Every study participant has seen some variation of this assurance in informed consent documents: "You are free to participate in this research or to withdraw at any time without penalty or loss of benefits you are entitled to receive."
  • Beaumont Hospitals relies on personal referrals

    As with many professional positions, personal referrals from other health care providers are what typically lead to an opportunity to serve on the ethics committee at Beaumont Hospitals in Royal Oak, MI.
  • News Briefs

    Members of the American Psychological Association in Washington, DC, have approved a resolution to prohibit psychologists from working in settings where "persons are held outside of, or in violation of, either International Law or the U.S. Constitution."
  • Medical ethics at issue in North Carolina case involving executions

    Medical ethics is at the center of a case in the state of North Carolina, whereby the state Department of Corrections is at odds with the North Carolina Medical Board (NCMB) over physician participation in executions.
  • Some patients refuse to stop chemo at end of life

    The above quote from an article published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in June demonstrates the challenges that physicians can have with certain patients who, in everyday language, refuse to give up the fight to continue with their life, even if a prognosis suggests that is not possible.
  • Sedated patients require dignity and respect

    Occasionally, reports of physician misconduct while a patient is sedated make headlines sometimes locally, sometimes nationally, and sometimes internationally.
  • Bad behavior by physicians to be confronted

    Editor's note: In the August 2008 issue, Medical Ethics Advisor reported on a new requirement by The Joint Commission to become effective January 2009 that hospitals monitor and correct so-called "disruptive behaviors" by health care professionals at their institutions. This month, MEA spoke with Laurie Zoloth at Northwestern University's Center for Bioethics, Science and Society. To discuss how physicians should address either incompetent or other bad behavior by other physicians.
  • Points for organizing an ethics committee

    Editor's note: Medical Ethics Advisor is beginning an occasional series with articles designed to help provide useful information in the organizing and administration of ethics committees.
  • Pharma industry revises ethics provisions

    "In interacting with the medical community, we are committed to following the highest ethical standards, as well as all legal requirements. We are also concerned that our interactions with health care professionals not be perceived as inappropriate by patients or the public at large. This Code is to reinforce our intention that our interactions with health care professionals are professional exchanges designed to benefit patients and to enhance the practice of medicine."
  • ACS, NMA join to reduce cancer disparities

    The American Cancer Society in Atlanta and the National Medical Association in Washington, DC, have joined the strengths of their respective organizations targeted to end disparities in cancer treatment and diagnosis among ethnic minority and underserved population groups.