Ethics of Surgical Practice

Surgical ethics is the application of ethics to issues specific to surgery. This volume provides a collection of clinical case studies representing a wide range of the ethical issues surgeons confront today. It is an excellent text for teaching surgical ethics to surgical residents andmedical students and a fascinating read for practicing surgeons. It is intended to engage the reader into participating in evidence-based ethical conflicts. The authors escort us through 71 brief, realistic, and ethically complex problems, offering a series of five possible resolutions to each and
guiding us through the relative benefits and weaknesses of the options until a best ethical choice is defended. The volume includes sections on Consent and Disclosure, Self-Regulation, Research and Innovation, Conflicts of Interest, Business Dealings, and End of Life Issues, each with a brief
introduction by the authors.

Chapter 1: Introduction: A Primer on Surgical Ethics ; Chapter 2: Informed Consent and Disclosure: ; 1. Painted Into a Corner: Unexpected Complications in Treating a Jehovah's Witness ; 2. A Patient Refuses Consent for Life-Saving Surgery; ; 3. Consent for an Intraoperative Video Recording ; Chapter 3. Professional Self-Regulation: ; 11. What to Tell Patients Harmed by Other Physicians; ; 12. Eye-Witness to Incompetent Surgery; ; 13. Military Physician's Ethical Response to Evidence of Torture ; Chapter 4. Innovation and Research: ; 22. When Does Conventional Surgery Become Research? ; 23. A Surgeon's Obligation When Performing New Procedures ; 24. The Ethics of Innovative Approaches for Well-Established Procedures ; Chapter 5. Conflicts of Interest and Conflicts of Commitment ; 33. Intentional Over-Treatment: The Unmentionable Conflict of Interest ; 34. Patient Responsibilities, Family Responsibilities; ; 35. Non-Financial Conflicts of Interest ; Chapter 6. The Ethics of Surgery as a Surgery: ; 44. Ethics of Physicians' Income; ; 45. Ethics of Personal Advertising in Surgery ; 46. Ethics of Institutional Marketing: The Role of Physicians ; Chapter 7. Medical Professionalism Challenges: Assaults from Within and Without ; 56. Going Public with Amazing Cases: Fiat or Fiasco?; ; 57. Unprofessional Behavior that Disrupts: Crossing the Line ; 58. My Brother's Keeper: Ethics of Uncompensated Care for Undocumented Immigrants ; Chapter 8. End-of-Life Issues ; 63. Futility and Surgical Intervention; ; 64. Advanced Age, Dementia, and an Abdominal Aneurysm: Intervene? ; 65. Complying with Advance Directives in the OR; ; 66. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in a Death Row Inmate; ; 67. Telling the Truth About Terminal Diseases; ; 68. Arsenic and Old Lace: End of Life Care in the Post-Operative ; 69. Training on Newly Deceased Patients; ; 70. Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Low-Burden Care; ; 71. Physician Assisted Suicide: Has It Come of Age?