Browse Medical Ethics Articles by Topic

Growing Movement Toward More Family Participation in ICUs

Family satisfaction scores increased after ICUs implemented family-centered care initiatives as part of the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Family Engagement Collaborative.

Family Members Encouraged to Offer More Care for Loved Ones in ICU

Researchers provide guidance to worried family members who may not know how to act in the intimidating ICU setting.

Unexpected Issues Hinder Ethics Committees’ Effectiveness

Conflicts of interests and bloated, unfocused panels can torpedo good intentions.

Controversy Surrounds Exception from Informed Consent Enrollment

The term “exception from informed consent” for some clinical trials has been around for decades, but most patients know nothing about it. Researchers set out to explore attitudes about enrolling subjects in studies without consent.

When Hospitals Refuse to See Medicaid Patients

Serving the best interests of patients while remaining financially solvent is a high-wire act. Ethicists can help clarify a hospital’s obligations to Medicaid patients, including policies relating to admission criteria, such as for patients with inadequate funding. These policies also can clear up confusion over ethical and legal obligations to Medicaid patients who present with emergencies.

Ethical Concerns When Calling Security Is Top Tactic to Handle Agitated Patients

Police officers are not mental healthcare professionals, but often are the ones called to help a person in crisis, even if that person is in the hospital at the time. Instead, police should be teamed with a mental health professional to help de-escalate volatile situations.

Ethical Framework for Prioritizing Healthcare Workers to Receive Vaccine

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisors cited ethical reasons for selecting healthcare workers as first to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

CDC: Healthcare Workers First in Line for COVID-19 Vaccine

Healthcare workers have been designated as the highest priority group to receive the first safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine cleared for use in the United States, according to recent discussions and materials reviewed in a non-voting meeting of top immunization advisors to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Lessons Learned — or Not — from Hydroxychloroquine Mishap

The research community’s decades of work to build public trust in IRB oversight and the clinical trial process has reached one of its greatest challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Misinformation spread through social media and some media outlets, as well as contradictory instructions and information from political and public health officials, have helped create distrust. Through the spring of 2020, misinformation about hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 therapeutic proliferated after President Trump spoke about it as a cure.

Minority Recruitment for COVID-19 Trials Is Low While Disease Burden Is High

More than 350,000 people said they were interested in volunteering for a COVID-19 vaccine trial in the United States, and only 10% of those who signed up are Black and Hispanic. Actual trial enrollment among two companies with large COVID-19 vaccine trials in the U.S. includes only one in five volunteers who are Black and Hispanic.