What if someone could be ‘kind of’ alive?
When the executioner’s assistant held up the freshly guillotined head of assassin Charlotte Corday by her hair and slapped her face on both cheeks in
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Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy
Reducing the DUI legal limit: A spirited debate
Earlier this year, Utah took a key step at reducing one of the key harms associated with alcohol: impaired driving. The Utah state legislature passed
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Confronting professional boundaries in medicine
Physician assistant (PA) school, clinical rotations, and patient interactions are sprinkled with unexpected, life-altering and difficult experiences at every turn. PAs are trained as generalists,
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Exploring the role of faith in medicine
Medicine and spirituality have been closely linked throughout human history. As long as humans have experienced illness we’ve questioned: “Why has this illness happened to
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The evolution of medical ethics committees
In 1962, Swedish Hospital in Seattle was the first institution to offer hemodialysis for patients with kidney failure. Demand for access to this novel and
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Do new well-intentioned guidelines advance the stigma of HIV?
Pre-exposure prophylaxis, commonly known as PrEP, is a daily pill that HIV-negative individuals may take to lower their chances of acquiring HIV. If taken as
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How providers are helping shape health policy
“The work of a physician as a healer cannot stop at the door of an office, the threshold of an operating room, or the front
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My first rodeo: Reflections on the New York-Houston Clinical Ethics Consortium
A few years ago, I asked a younger colleague if she was comfortable taking the lead on a project. She confidently replied that she was
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‘End Game’ brings palliative care discussions to small screen
Although it failed to take home a statue at the Academy Awards, the documentary short film “End Game” is worth watching for its portrayal of
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Code blues: When is CPR not useful?
Over the course of my medical residency, I have developed a profound dread of ‘Code Blues,’ which occur when a patient experiences cardiac arrest and
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