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Medical Ethics Advisor – April 1, 2007
April 1, 2007
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Plenty of ethical questions arise before patients reach the hospital
Medical ethics issues arise before some patients ever reach a hospital or emergency room, as paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and the physicians who serve as medical directors for emergency medical services (EMS) grapple with resuscitation, triage, and consent issues. -
Strategies for Avoiding EMS Control Liability
When providing medical control, devote appropriate attention to cases involving emergency medical services. Patients in the field deserve no less attention than those actually in the ED. -
When should you deactivate implanted cardiac devices?
Are internal defibrillators and pacemakers biofixtures, like artificial hearts, that should not be deactivated when a patient is dying? Or are they like any other external device for example, supplemental oxygen that are protective of life but employed at the discretion of the user? -
Controversial treatments: Where does religion fit?
Most physicians polled for a recent study say they feel an obligation to present all options to patients seeking legal but controversial procedures that the physicians object to, but more than one-quarter say they would not feel compelled to refer the patient to a doctor who did not object to the objectionable procedure. -
Harp provides therapy at end of life for patients
At the end of life, there often comes a point when there's nothing more, clinically, that can be done. That's when the music starts for some patients. -
Stanford gets on the stage to generate ethics debate
Brain transplantation, genetic manipulation topics Genetic manipulation and a transplant that would test medical ethics at all levels are being examined at Stanford University, but the drama is playing out not in the operating theater, but on stage. -
PA acts to sort out who makes end-of-life decisions
Pennsylvania physicians are hoping a new law will eliminate deathbed feuds among family members at odds over who may make end-of-life decisions for patients who aren't capable of speaking for themselves. -
News Briefs
Some doctors are prescribing the off-label use of antipsychotic medications approved to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder without strong evidence that they are effective when prescribed instead for dementia, depression, and other psychiatric disorders, according to a government analysis. -
Pediatricians struggle with error disclosure
Almost 100% of pediatricians in a recent survey said serious medical errors should be disclosed to patient's families, with almost all saying making that admission to parents would be difficult.