Medical Ethics Advisor – December 1, 2019
December 1, 2019
View Issues
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Ethicists Play ‘Vitally Important Role’ in Addressing Widespread Clinician Burnout
A recent report confirms that burnout among U.S. clinicians is occurring at alarming rates and includes recommendations for system reforms and human factors redesign.
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Social Media Effective Tool to Recruit Youth for Research Studies
The results of two recent investigations reveal that young people and physicians offer differing views about using social media to recruit participants into clinical research trials.
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Ethical Issues for Individuals Providing Unproven Stem Cell Treatments
There are well-established, significant ethical concerns regarding the safety and efficacy of treatments offered by stem cell clinics. Much less is known about those actually providing these unproven interventions. Now, researchers have collected data about their background and training.
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Ethics Consult Can Go Undocumented — to the Detriment of Ethics Department
Many problems can occur if ethics consults are documented sparsely or not at all. Lack of documentation hinders the ethics service from knowing how it is performing.
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Evolving Ethics of Anonymous Sperm and Egg Donors
Traditionally, the identity of sperm and egg donors were kept strictly anonymous, but this is changing. A recent position statement from the American Society for Reproductive Medicine concerns this ethical issue.
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One-Size-Fits-All Limits on Opioids Are Ethically Problematic
The current opioid crisis generated immediate actions at many levels; regulatory requirements were implemented quickly. However, some of these placed seemingly arbitrary limits on prescribing, even for painful surgical procedures.
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Challenges to Transplant Allocation Carry Ethical Implications
An insurance company’s denial of coverage for a liver transplant sometimes is perceived as discriminatory. The authors of a recent paper analyzed judicial review of these controversial cases.
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Fresh Data on Medical Student, Nurse Attitudes on Medical Assistance in Dying
Nurses play a central role in the process of medical assistance in dying, even if they bear no responsibility for the act itself, according to the authors of a recent study.