Past Events Archive

Medical decision-making involving adolescents can offer many challenges. As children age we want them to be more involved in decisions regarding their bodies and about their care. Because adolescents are not yet completely adults, there…

Can a pharmacist ethically refuse to honor a woman’s request to refill a prescription for contraceptives, even if the patient has refills available? Can a pharmacist ethically refuse to fill a prescription for emergency contraception?…

Conflicts between ethical commitments to respect patient autonomy and to prevent avoidable harms to patients arise when patients try to leave the hospital before it is safe to leave. On one hand, involuntary hospitalization is a serious…

This session of Unpacking Bedside Bioethics dives deep into the process of surrogate decision-making. Building on the previous session “'Who Ya Gonna Call?' When Your Patients Can’t Decide by Themselves," this session will explore what…

Informed consent is a critical piece of respecting a patient’s autonomy. Only if a patient or surrogate understands the risks, benefits, and alternatives to proposed health care can they adequately evaluate whether that health care is…

In daily clinical practice, care decisions must be made even when patients lack capacity to independently provide informed consent and shared decision-making. If the patient has not named someone to speak for them, it can become a…

Respect for patient autonomy is not as simple as doing what patients say they want. As clinicians, we also have an obligation to use our skill for the benefit of patients, to not cause harm, & to care for all of our patients in ways…

Decision making capacity is a critical piece of working out how to respect a patient's autonomy. Determination of decision-making capacity lies in the hands of clinicians. While the idea of determining if a patient can make decisions might…