Waste in U.S. health care — spending on interventions that don't benefit patients — amounts to at least 30% of health care spending and is a major driver of cost increases. So the ethical debate about cost containment is shifting focus from rationing to waste avoidance.

New ethics guidelines from the American College of Physicians calling for physicians to practice “parsimonious care” have reignited a debate about the role and responsibility of physicians in addressing problems with health care costs.

The relationship between patients and doctors is at the core of medical ethics, anchoring many important debates in the field. Over the past several decades, this relationship has evolved along three axes — as it is defined in clinical care, research, and society.

On December 1, 2011, in Flynn v. Holder, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that the ban on selling “bone marrow” that is part of the National Organ Transplantation Act of 1984 does not encompass “peripheral blood stem cells” obtained through apheresis.

The world faces a shortage of about 4.3 million health professionals required for delivering essential services. The WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel addresses the migration of health workers from lower-income countries.

The question of whether a duty exists to recontact patients about new genetic information has been debated for decades without consensus, but new technologies compel us to reconsider this complex matter, weighing ethical, legal, and practical considerations.

The U.S. HIV surveillance system was built with robust firewalls ensuring that data can go in but not come out. Now, gaps in continuity of HIV care and the improved ability to reduce transmission argue for opening up HIV registries for public health use.

Escalating health care costs threaten the viability of the economy, forcing physicians to reexamine the choices they make in caring for patients. How can a commitment to cost-effective care be reconciled with a fundamental principle of primacy of patient welfare?

In 1961, U.S. legislation transformed prescription drug approval and use. One question it raised was how and by whom information about drugs should be evaluated and communicated to physicians. Half a century later, the question is still hotly contested.

Today, the most recent in a long line of antivaccinationists are using modern media to sway public opinion and distract attention from scientific evidence. But there are steps we can take to avert the ill effects of these campaigns.

While U.S. courts consider a lawsuit alleging that the military's “don't ask, don't tell” policy violates the rights of gay and lesbian service members, the policy continues to jeopardize the health of those service members, the military, and the country at large.

First I will define what I conceive medicine to be. In general terms, it is to do away with the sufferings of the sick, to lessen the violence of their diseases, and to refuse to treat those who are overmastered by their disease, realizing that in such ...

Embryo research was born political. Expressions of shock and surprise at the August 23 ruling of federal district court judge Royce Lamberth enjoining federal funding of stem-cell research — which was based largely on his reading of an amendment to an ...