Browse Medical Ethics Articles by Topic

Study: Timing of Advance Directive Linked to Aggressive End-of-Life Care

Did a patient complete an advance directive in his or her last months of life? If so, there is a greater chance of choosing aggressive care, found a recent study.

Study: Residents Want to Be Involved in Error Disclosure

Residents’ error disclosure skills have improved over time, largely due to informal learning experiences, found a recent study.

Ethical Controversy Persists in Medical Aid in Dying Laws

Recently passed state laws allowing physician-assisted death are in conflict with a newly updated position statement from the American College of Physicians objecting to the practice.

Purdue IRB Shuts Down Youth Study

An IRB at Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN, has terminated a study of young people with high blood pressure after a youth camp last summer was plagued by multiple incidents of violence and sexual harassment.

Counterpoint: Transplant Recipients of Research Organs Entitled to Informed Consent

Interventional research to preserve the viability of donor organs means the transplant recipient is a research subject entitled to give informed consent — period, experts say.

Sample of Two-page Informed Consent Document

The University of Cincinnati developed a two-page informed consent form that could be used in an emergency research study, involving the administration of pain medication to people who were in acute traumatic pain.

Study Looks at Use of Emergency Research Informed Consent

Emergency research is essential to improving healthcare, but following regulatory human research protection rules can be challenging — particularly with informed consent.

Clinical Trials Often Exclude Women, Even When There Could Be Compelling Benefit

Clinical trials often exclude pregnant women, citing additional risks. However, women almost never are asked what they think about participating in those studies and the risks. This is an issue some researchers are working to correct.

Revisiting the ‘Unfortunate Experiment’ in New Zealand

It’s astonishing in retrospect that women in New Zealand diagnosed with an increasingly clear precursor to cervical cancer were left untreated and uninformed in an unethical study that continued for two decades.

Pain Research Can Harm Participants

Researchers must pay greater attention to the rights of study participants in pain research, concludes a recent paper by the Ethics Committee of the Pain-Omics Group.