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Medical Ethics Advisor

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  • Genetic testing: Should children be tested?

    It's the ethical spectre that emerges with every advance in genetic testing. Should children be tested for gene mutations that predispose them to developing serious illnesses later in life?
  • Handling incidental findings in age of genetic research

    Clinical research teams and investigators may find that their traditional strategies for handling incidental findings during a trial are inadequate in this age of genetic research.
  • ACP: Research, legalize medical-use marijuana

    Calls to legalize marijuana for medical use have come from an assortment of groups, but none with the status and influence of the American College of Physicians (ACP), the country's second-largest medical association, until now.
  • Faulty reporting systems deter error reporting

    Lots has been written about physicians' unwillingness to report medical errors, but findings from the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) suggest it's not a lack of honesty and ethics at work it's a lack of confidence in current reporting systems.
  • News Briefs

    Placebos have been a part of medicine since ancient times, and remain both clinically relevant and philosophically interesting, according to a University of Chicago medical student whose research has shown that 45% of Chicago-area internists use placebos in their practice.
  • ACOG conscience position outrages 'pro-life' MDs

    A paper reporting the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists (ACOG) association's position on how far doctors can go in conscientious refusal to perform abortions and prescribe emergency contraception is an attack on "pro-life" physicians, according to two medical associations.
  • Ethics center to standardize ethics consultations

    The U.S. Veterans Health Administration (VA) National Center for Ethics in Health Care launched a major ethics integration initiative in 2007, including a new component that seeks to standardize and evaluate the quality of ethics consultations.
  • News Brief

    Following the deaths of two patients at specialty hospitals owned by physicians in both cases, the patients suffered complications following surgery, no physician was on duty, and the specialty hospitals called 9-1-1 to respond the Senate Finance Committee asked the Office of Inspector General (OIG) to evaluate patient care at 109 physician-owned specialty hospitals in the United States, and the OIG report, released in January, has raised concerns for patient safety.
  • Doctor-patient hugs: Is non-clinical touch a line you should cross?

    Have you hugged a patient today? Whether your answer is yes or no, there will be disagreement about the wisdom of your choice.
  • Ethics of care extend through discharge

    Hospital staff have a plethora of ethical duties while their patients are hospitalized under their care, but clinicians need to remember that their duty to provide ethical care extends right up to and even beyond the point of discharge, says Emory University ethicist John Banja, PhD.