The term informed consent does not have long historical roots. Until recent centuries, healthcare professionals were not held responsible for providing information to patients. more

Kara Neumann, 11, had grown so weak that she could not walk or speak. Her parents, who believe that God alone has the ability to heal the sick, prayed for her recovery but did not take her to a doctor. … Tęsti skaitymą →

Patient care is being risked by hospital bosses sending medical notes abroad to be typed up, a union says. more

„Doctors can be involved with decisions concerning withdrawing and withholding treatment, approaching bereaved families about organ donation and assisted reproduction. „Indeed there has never been such an important role for medical ethics to help guide doctors in their everyday decisions.“ … Tęsti skaitymą →

In an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Howard Brody, professor of family medicine and director of the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, writes that the medical profession, … Tęsti skaitymą →

Once a patient becomes terminally ill, relationships between patients, their caregivers and their primary doctors can change. Now a study offers an unusual glimpse of what patients and their doctors are thinking as the end of life approaches — and … Tęsti skaitymą →

Doctors spend years learning how to heal, but most are fairly ignorant about how to act toward patients when they run out of treatments, suggests a study today. Often, once doctors refer a patient to hospice care, they end all … Tęsti skaitymą →

I have learned since then that the best way to inform a patient of test results, especially results that indicate bad news, is a subject of debate among doctors. This is especially true outside the hospital setting. Many doctors have … Tęsti skaitymą →

Yet some medical ethicists warn against practicing medicine too empathetically or becoming too involved in patients’ lives, saying it compromises treatment and the profession as a whole. Others argue personalized care will become extinct if physicians are not able to … Tęsti skaitymą →

The doctor wants to know who determines if the patient is ‘terminal’, and what he should say to the „hostile and angry“ family. The ethicist tells him that deciding if a cancer is in its terminal phase is a clinical … Tęsti skaitymą →