Futility, in general, is the inability to achieve an intended goal or outcome. Biomedical futility more specifically is a clinical judgment that, in light of the patient's current clinical circumstance, it is not physiologically ...

Edmund Pellegrino's influence has spanned over 60 years of service. His insight and ability to articulate the importance of beneficence and trust through the healing relationship have continued to provide a grounding force ...

of life decisions that may be forced to yield to the exigency of social and political ends. Not unlike Quinlan in the 1970s and Cruzan in the 1980s, the personal freedom and privacy arguments of Shiavo have overcome the socio-political morality of the day...

Medical ethics is grounded by the notion that we must always respect the patient's right of self determination, which means that we should inform patients about what needs to be done and seek permission before doing it to them. But, what about those...

is felt to be futile. This includes the use of CPR, artificial hydration and nutrition, unnecessary diagnostic procedures, and interventions that may sustain life but not necessarily provide optimal patient comfort....

disclosure will prevent a lawsuit. In general, though patients may trust their physicians more if they are truthful, they expect restitution of some kind if they are harmed....

Health illiteracy is a serious and growing problem in this country. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) nearly half of all American adults (that's 90 million people) have difficulty understanding and using health ...

In 2003 the Institute of Medicine, in Unequal Treatment: Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, reported a consistent body of research demonstrating significant racial variation in the access to and ...

The list of people waiting for organ transplants continues to grow. According to the Missouri Hospital Association more than 80,000 men, women and children nationwide are waiting for new organs, including more than 1,800 ...

2001 and 2005 (from $4.2 billion to $6.3 billion), predominantly due to increases in enrollment, as well as changes in case mix. In an attempt to curb this growing financial burden 90,000 enrollees were cut from the Medicaid roles in 2005 resulting in a...

Terri Schindler-Schiavo has lived in a persistent vegetative state in Florida for thirteen years, since her collapse and resuscitation at age 26 due to apparent severe hypokalemia. She has been kept alive with a jejunal ...

In Texas Legislators are having second thoughts about a controversial futile care law that allows hospitals to unilaterally terminate life support in patients with end stage illness. Under the terms of the state's "futile-care ...

This article comprises the author's answers to five questions on Normative Ethics posed by the editors of the collection....

We consider the effect of perceived economic pressures on the ethical attitudes of farmers. We hypothesize that an increase in the economic pressures a farmer faces could result in that farmer being more tolerant of unethical conduct than farmers...

for Community Health Outcomes) leads to improved sensemaking by clinicians. This study examined the effect of type of ethics training on ethical response self-efficacy scores. Using a series of univariate analyses of variance, the study found that participants...

The study aimed to look at how documentary filmmakers formulate their professional code of ethics, if they apply journalistic standards and rules while working as independent filmmakers. Specifically, this research sought to understand how they feel...

The purpose of this research was to learn the impact that ethics codes, ethics training, and audits have in promoting ethical behavior among local government employees. The research began with a survey of city auditors and finance department...

reasoning consisted of four components: (1) identification of ethical issues (ethical sensitivity); (2) adoption of multiple viewpoints (ethical viewpoint); (3) resolution of ethical dilemmas (ethical options); and, (4) justification of decisions and actions...

This thesis explores how duty-based ethics can aid in explaining how public relations professional employed by corporations communicate with external publics, especially when organizations are faced with crises. A content analysis examined whether...

This paper considers the question of whether ethical decision-making affects a person's happiness. Using cross-country data from the World Values Survey, it is discovered that people who agree that it is never justifiable to engage in ethically...