Medical Ethics Advisor – March 1, 2006
March 1, 2006
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Withdrawing life support from PVS patients: Do ethics change for age?
The case of an 11-year-old Massachusetts girl, Haleigh Poutre, who suffered severe brain trauma last year as the result of abuse and is now in the custody of the state, has opened up discussion on withdrawing life support in pediatric patients who are diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS). -
Recognition of patients’ spiritual needs grows
Spirituality is recognized as a factor that many patients say contributes to their health; but now experts even some who previously had doubts are embracing patients and their own spirituality as an essential part of treatment. -
PAS ruling settles some questions, others left open
Though the Supreme Courts recent ruling in Gonzales v. Oregon says more about physicians authority to write prescriptions than about the right of states to pass laws permitting physician-assisted suicide (PAS), proponents of Oregons Death with Dignity law welcomed the ruling as a victory for physician discretion and patient autonomy. -
Abstinence-only education problematic, group says
The Society for Adolescent Medicine (SAM) has issued a position statement rejecting current administration policy promoting abstinence-only education for young people, urging U.S. educators to present abstinence as one important option in an overall sexual health prevention strategy. -
Accepting, rejecting patient gifts: A delicate proposition
If a grateful patient presented you with one of his Aunt Marys special fruitcakes during the holidays, it was probably pretty obvious that such a gift presents no ethical dilemma. -
JCAHO issues sentinel event alert on medication accuracy
The nations largest hospital accreditation organization has issued a new warning aiming to reduce harmful incidents arising from inaccurate delivery of medications. -
Americans for quarantine not forced compliance
If faced with the threat of SARS, avian flu or another epidemic, most Americans would consider quarantine a good idea but they wouldnt approve of strong enforcement. That is one American attitude toward quarantine described by Harvard public health researchers who studied U.S. attitudes about quarantine.