Medical Ethics Advisor – February 1, 2004
February 1, 2004
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Health care disparities continue among minorities, the poor, says HHS
African-American and low-income U.S. residents are more likely to die from cancer, less likely to be insured, and less likely to have usual sources of health care than white and higher-income Americans, recent reports from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services indicate. -
Examining choice to cease mechanical ventilation
Rather than age or severity of illness, the strongest determinants of the withdrawal of ventilation in critically ill patients are often the physicians perception that the patient preferred not to use life support or had a low chance of survival in the intensive care unit, a recent study1 by the Canadian Critical Care Trials Group and the Level of Care Study Investigators has found. -
Bioterrorism program may harm public trust
Public health officials should carefully evaluate the reasons for low rates of participation of health care workers in Phase 1 of the federal Smallpox Preparedness Plan before expanding the vaccination campaign if they hope to preserve the publics trust in vaccination campaigns as a viable public health measure, a group of ethicists from the University of Pennsylvania warn. -
Voluntary dehydration as end-of-life option?
Studies of terminally ill patients indicate that a small number of them want the option of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) or other means of controlling the manner in which they die. Yet with PAS legal in only one state, most will not have that option. -
AHA releases guidelines on fair billing and collection
On Dec. 17, the American Hospital Association (AHA) announced it would provide guidelines for hospitals on billing and collection practices to ensure that poor patients and patients who lack health insurance are treated in a fair-and-balanced manner.