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![Two parrots arguing.]()
Case Study: Medical Team Disagrees
Medical team members believe that the primary attending may be prolonging Mr. Blake’s death rather than saving his life and allowing his suffering to continue. Center for Practical Bioethics.
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![A graphic stating the Ethics Dispatch is like an ethics committee meeting in a box. With four topic sections: monthly hot topic, new clinical ethics case study, current bioethics news stories and ethical musing essay.]()
Ethical Leadership in Healthcare: One Key Element
Justice strengthens leadership, and conversely, when leadership lacks justice, moral distress proliferates. Leaders who model fairness signal that ethical concerns are legitimate operational considerations. They’re a practical necessity – not distractions from efficiency. In Ethical Musings, we compare the ad hominem ethical fallacy to other ethical systems’ approach to judging moral character and leadership. The Center for Practical Bioethics.
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![Two cups tied together. One cup is in excellent shape while the other is broken and glued.]()
Bioethics Case Study – Empathy in Ethics Consultation Supports Family
Using empathy in healthcare ethics consultations is the topic of this Bioethics case study in VIDEO and PRINT. This case illustrates how the ethics consultant discovered the underlying reason for the family’s reluctance to let go and find a way to meet their need with empathy. Published by the Center for Practical Bioethics.
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![A graphic stating the Ethics Dispatch is like an ethics committee meeting in a box. With four topic sections: monthly hot topic, new clinical ethics case study, current bioethics news stories and ethical musing essay.]()
When Empathy Is Turned into Fear
Empathy is redirected into self-protection. When immigration enforcement is highly visible, inconsistently applied, and no longer constrained by once-respected boundaries, people begin to ask not only what is happening to them? but could this happen to us? Distance begins to feel safer than beneficence. All this while the steps needed to protect immigrant patients are well known, ethically justified and within bounds of the law. The Center for Practical Bioethics.
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![A graphic stating the Ethics Dispatch is like an ethics committee meeting in a box. With four topic sections: monthly hot topic, new clinical ethics case study, current bioethics news stories and ethical musing essay.]()
When the ECMO Bridge Leads Nowhere
No Tidy Answers: When the ECMO Bridge Leads Nowhere Perhaps it’s not about destination but the journey. That when we cannot alter the destination, we can profoundly shape the experience of getting there. The case study picks up the topic with a patient whose husband requests ECMO to save her life without her consent. Ryan follows up with the one question to ask about ECMO and other medical miracles. The Center for Practical Bioethics.
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Case Study: When Vaccination Status Leads to Conflict
Bioethics case study on parents reacting defensively when doctors ask about the child’s vaccination status. Physicians question their response to anti-vax parents. Published by the Center for Practical Bioethics.
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![A child's hand laying open.]()
Bioethics Case Study – When a Parent Overrules Their Child’s Best Interests
When parents overrule their child’s best interest is the topic of this Bioethics case study in VIDEO and PRINT. Patient self-determination and personal autonomy are central components of ethically appropriate care. Published by the Center for Practical Bioethics.
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![A graphic stating the Ethics Dispatch is like an ethics committee meeting in a box. With four topic sections: monthly hot topic, new clinical ethics case study, current bioethics news stories and ethical musing essay.]()
Doing Harm: Vaccine Policy in the Age of Distortion
Doing Harm: Vaccine Policy in the Age of Distortion The January 2026 Ethics Dispatch discusses how the current head of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is calling for the reduction or even the elimination of childhood vaccine and by doing so, is doing harm. The Center for Practical Bioethics.
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![Bushes cut to the shape of a question mark in a field.]()
Case Study: Starting ECMO Without Consent
Bioethics case study on starting ECMO without consent. Starting ECMO: Husband Requests Intervention for Wife Without Her Consent The patient’s husband requests ECMO without her consent. Center for Practical Bioethics
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![A hand intervening in dominoes falling. Stopping the process.]()
Bioethics Case Study – ECMO and Healthcare Technology
Bioethics case study on ECMO and Healthcare Technology in VIDEO and PRINT. Technology Means Hard Choices: To Start or Not to Start ECMO. His wife became critically ill and had to be transferred to the ICU after delivering her baby via emergency C-section. She continued to decline in the ICU to the point that her only chance of survival was to be transferred to another hospital to start ECMO. Published by the Center for Practical Bioethics.
