Medical Ethics Advisor – October 1, 2018
October 1, 2018
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Growing Evidence That Surrogate Decision-makers Need Help
Surrogates reported better-quality communication with a family support intervention, found a recent study.
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Ethics of Industry-Neurosurgeon Relationships
Conflicts of interest are inherent to surgical innovation and can be handled in an ethically sound manner, concluded a recent literature review.
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Informed Consent Challenges When Subject Is in ICU
ICU patients frequently lack capacity to provide informed consent for clinical research due to multiple factors. However, the presence of one or more of these characteristics does not automatically designate a potential subject as lacking capacity to provide his or her own informed consent.
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Ethics Needs of Pediatric EDs More Prevalent
Ethical challenges in pediatric EDs are more prevalent than in adult EDs, found a recent study. Researchers also found that nurses voice specific moral distress issues that are different than adult EDs.
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Orientation for Ethics Consultants? Some Have None at All
Institutions should re-evaluate their orientation practices for ethics committee members that perform ethics consultations, suggests recent research.
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Ethics Guidance on Reproductive Issues in Cancer Patients
Multiple ethical issues related to reproduction in the context of cancer are addressed in an updated position statement from The American Society for Reproductive Medicine’s Ethics Committee.
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Patients With Language Barriers Less Likely to Limit Life Support and Change Code to DNR
Decisions regarding life support, code status, and advance directives are different for patients with limited English proficiency in the ICU compared with patients whose primary language was English, found a recent study.
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Surge in Ethics Consults Outside ICU Setting
Ethicists at Springfield, IL-based Memorial Medical Center have been seeing increased volume of consults for some time. Recently, they have noticed many are occurring outside of the ICU setting.