By Derek Summerfield. During the Middle Ages in Europe the practice of torture drew distinction from its association with confessed truth, repentance, and salvation, yet by 1874 Victor Hugo could write that “torture has ceased to exist.” However there has never been any doubt that torture would outlive its obituarists. As I record in my […]
Category: Medical ethics
Do doctors engaging in advocacy speak for themselves or their profession?
By Elizabeth Lanphier In the United States, where I live and work, it is common for physicians to speak out on a variety of topics both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, physicians advocate against gun violence as a matter of public health. Pediatricians become #tweetiatrician on social media to raise awareness about […]
Civil commitment for opioid misuse: The need for an ethical use framework
By John C Messinger, Daniel J Ikeda, Ameet Sarpatwari In the 12 months prior to September 2020, there were over 66,000 fatal opioid overdoses in the United States, a 36% increase over the previous year. Many scholars have hypothesized that this dramatic rise was driven at least in part by conditions brought on by the […]
Knowledge, power, and patients: The ethics of open notes
By Charlotte Blease, Catherine DesRoches, Maria Hägglund, Adam Hayden, Hanife Rexhepi, & Liz Salmi Most of us now use the internet to check the health of our bank balance. Worldwide, however, the majority of patients still cannot inspect their actual healthcare records online. From April 5 in the USA the law changed. With few exceptions […]
How the laboratory and the pathologist affect access to care
By Cullen M. Lilley and Kamran M. Mirza. As you sit in your hospital room after surgery, a feeling of uncertainty may start to grow. Each tube blood draw is like a tally mark for another day gone by without an answer. Meanwhile, each tube of blood, biopsy material, or the resection from your surgery […]
Remediating dishonesty: perspectives of a doctor and ethicist
By Daniel Sokol and Tarek Seda In June 2017, Dr Tarek Seda was a locum A & E doctor who worked consecutive night shifts in an emergency department. During this time, Dr Seda fell asleep, failed to adhere to his allocated break times, and made a number of errors when assessing and treating patients. A […]
Animal content in prescribed medications and medical goods: Are we asking enough questions?
By Sarah Cullivan Dietary restrictions that exclude animal content are common and complex. While it is generally acknowledged and accepted that most medications are tested on animals prior to the introduction in human subjects to ensure safety, it is not always clear to prescribing physicians and consuming patients which medications and medical products are animal […]
Who’s responsible for informing relatives about genetic risk?
By Kalle Grill and Anna Rosén. It is established practice in many countries that healthcare professionals encourage patients to share relevant risk information with genetic relatives. We mostly endorse this practice but question a normative assumption that typically underpins it. Both practitioners and academics in the field are in general agreement that: It is desirable […]
Pandemic prioritarianism: what can we learn from Covid-19?
By Lasse Nielsen. Medical ethics have to learn from actual ethical experiences from the medical practice. The relevant interpretation and application of ethical theories must adhere to issues and questions that arise in clinical practice, and oftentimes we find that our intuitions about practical matters do not fit our theories and principles. In these cases, […]
“Healthcare heroes”: The danger of military metaphors
By Zahra H. Khan, Yoshiko Iwai, Sayantani DasGupta Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Healthcare Hero” metaphor has gained tremendous popularity, generating praise for healthcare workers as well as caution against the metaphor’s potentially negative consequences. In her recent article, Dr. Caitríona L Cox explains that, when heroized, healthcare workers face unfair expectations of personal sacrifice […]