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The vaccine that provides protection against four types of human papillomavirus (HPV), a leading cause of cervical cancer, is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), but drives to mandate it for adolescent girls have created a storm of controversy.
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While the media glare on cases like those of brain-damaged, "vegetative" patients such as Terri Schiavo and Terry Wallis has brought plenty of attention to the questions surrounding the recovery of severely brain-injured patients, it has done little to clear up confusion, according to medical ethics experts.
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If a patient has a sexually transmitted disease and you are fearful of him or her infecting others, you may be tempted to inform the patient's spouse or significant other. However, this is the patient's decision to make... not the doctor's.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
