Medical Ethics
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United Kingdom Begins First COVID-19 Human Challenge Study
Lawmakers, academics, and the research community have hotly debated the ethics of a human challenge study since the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that the United Kingdom has started dosing patients in its human challenge study, some bioethicists say this trial can show vaccine efficacy in ways the larger vaccine trials cannot.
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Study of COVID-19 Vaccine in Pregnant People ‘Too Late’
On Feb. 18, Pfizer and BioNTech announced they would dose about 4,000 healthy pregnant women with the COVID-19 vaccine to evaluate its safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity. Although pregnant people were excluded initially from the COVD-19 trials, research has shown they are at higher risk for more severe disease.
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Biden Administration Abandons ‘Public Charge’ Rule
Under Trump era proposal, immigrants who received public benefits, including Medicaid, above a certain level would be considered a “public charge.”
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Unanticipated Ethical Issues Arise When Data Are Collected and Analyzed
Discussions about ethical concerns led to the development of a checklist to raise awareness of issues that arise in daily work.
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The Joint Commission Sets Specific Ethical Expectations
Leadership is expected to establish an ethical framework on which all operations, policies, procedures, and services are based, and in a manner that supports the delivery of safe, quality care, treatment, and services.
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Lack of Metrics, Specificity, and Regulations Concern Some Ethics Services
To some, there is a perception that regulatory agencies still consider ethics a small-volume service handled by a volunteer committee instead of a critical, high-volume service run by paid ethics staff. A few professionals in the trenches believe this critical subject is taken too lightly.
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Healthcare Professionals Should Complete Their Own Advance Care Planning Directives
If providers manage their own plans, they can share firsthand insights. They will be in a better position to inform, guide, and support their patients. It will make them a more effective, trusted, and knowledgeable resource.
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Ethics Services Taking First Steps Toward Preventive Work
Preventive ethics work, aimed at topics of high institutional concern, shows how ethicists can not only comment on issues but also sometimes prevent them from occurring.
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Palliative Care Integrated into Critical Care Settings, Including EDs
Although palliative care is integral to providing quality care, in the ED the focus tends to be on aggressive and life-saving measures. More education and training is needed to make ED providers more comfortable with integrating palliative care there.
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Survey Reveals Widespread Discrimination in Healthcare
In addition to racial/ethnic discrimination, survey respondents reported discrimination based on education, income level, weight, sex, and age. Ethicists play a major role in applying methodological and theoretical tools to respond effectively to this problem.