Since the mid-1990s, poor oral health has been neglected as a public health threat, despite its recognition as epidemic in scale by the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Surgeon General. Americans’ poor oral health influences…
Here we present a case of a patient in terminal respiratory failure refusing to consent to emergent tracheostomy in the setting of an anticipated difficult intubation. We examine ethical concerns that arise from deviations from the standard of care in…
With advances in antiretroviral therapies, perinatally infected children are now living with HIV well beyond adolescence. Parents and health care practitioners thus face the challenge of deciding how best to disclose positive serostatus to children living with HIV. Although many…
International medical graduates (IMGs) tend to choose careers in geriatric psychiatry, likely because high-quality training and robust mentorship opportunities from other IMGs are available. Geriatric psychiatry offers stable career prospects and opportunities to express humanitarian impulses by working closely with…
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an incurable, progressive deterioration that ends, eventually, in death. For many years, AD’s hallmark etiological feature was beta-amyloid plaque accumulation in the brain, but, to date, costly drugs designed to reduce beta-amyloid levels offer only marginal…
This commentary on a case considers risks and benefits of pharmacological and nonpharmacological management of agitation in patients with dementia. Specifically, it considers beneficence and nonmaleficence in treatment decisions that affect both patients and staff as well as autonomy and…
This commentary examines 4 ethical issues in a case of clinicians considering conducting research on children in conflict zones: (1) whether any time or resources should be taken away from treating acute injuries in order to conduct research; (2) obtaining…
Military clinicians face unique ethical challenges in conflict zones, particularly if conflict reaches a health care setting. Although the ethical challenges of rationing and triaging while fulfilling obligations to individual patients are not dissimilar to those civilian clinicians encountered during…
Clinicians in post conflict health care settings can be tasked with caring for patients who are ex-combatants. This commentary responds to a case of a health worker with duties to care for ex-Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia combatants. Specifically, this…
This commentary on a case analysis examines the principles that govern decisions about which patients might be admitted to an international military hospital during humanitarian or combat operations. It explores the balance between duties under the Geneva Conventions and other…
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