Ethics Center

Ethics Center Journal Club

Upcoming Journal Club

March: “Ethics of Interpretation in Multilingual Healthcare Settings”

Previous Journal Club Topics

2025

  • January: “Cultural Difference and Truth Telling in Pediatrics"
  • February: Special Event: "Psychedelic Medicine: The Ethics of Personal Facilitator Experience"

2024

  • January: “Focus on the Family: A Case Example of End-of-Life Care for an Older LGBT Veteran”
  • February: “Responding to Cultural Limitations on Patient Autonomy”
  • March: “Handling Suspected Abuse in Geriatric Patients”
  • April: “Do Surrogates Have a Right to Refuse Pain Medications for Incompetent Patients?”
  • May: “Ethical Obligations around Discharge”
  • June: “Advance Directives and Dementia”
  • September: “Parents Who Do Their Own Research: Pediatric Decision-Making, Trust, and Vaccine Hesitancy”
  • October: The Ethics of “Difficult” Patients
  • November: “Moral Dimensions of Trainee Participation in Patient Care”
  • December: “You Shouldn’t Have!: Gift-Giving and Professional Ethics”

2023

  • February: “The Capacity to Designate a Surrogate is Distinct from Decisional Capacity”
  • March: “How Should Clinicians Address Parental False Beliefs Generated by Denial or Grief?”
  • April: “Discharging to the Street: When Patients Refuse Medically Safer Options”
  • May: “The Perils of Health Misinformation”
  • August: “Exploring the Ethics of the Parental Role in Parent-Clinician Conflict”
  • November: “Smuggled Doughnuts and Forbidden Fried Chicken: Addressing Tensions around Family and Food Restrictions in Hospitals”
  • December: “Ethical Considerations for Cardiac Surgical Interventions in Children with Trisomy 13 and Trisomy 18”

2022

  • January: “Surrogate Decision Making for Unrepresented Patients”
  • February: “The Shared Decision-Making Continuum”
  • March: “Intersectionality in Clinical Medicine”
  • April: “Pediatric Authenticity”
  • May: “The Abusive Patient: Where Do You Draw the Line?”
  • September: "Rethinking Disability: The Social Model of Disability and Chronic Disease"
  • October: “Bodily Integrity and the Care of Persons Experiencing Homelessness”
  • November: “A Clinician’s Approach to Clinical Ethical Reasoning”

2021

  • January: “When Decision-Makers Exclude Trainees from Patient Care”
  • February: “The Allegedly Abusive Surrogate"
  • March: “Shared Decision-Making and Health-Undermining Goals”
  • April:“ COVID Human Challenge Trials: Ethical Considerations”
  • May: “Addressing Pediatric Suffering”
  • June: “Difficult Discharge Decisions”
  • October: “Moral Distress”
  • November: “Requests for Nondisclosure”
  • December: “Pediatric Participation in Decision Making”

2020

  • January: “Medical Futility: A Closer Look”
  • February: “Health- Promoting Nudges”
  • March: “Artificial Intelligence in Medicine”
  • October: “When is a patient represented?”
  • November: “Advance Directives and Dementia”
  • December: “Real MD vs. WebMD: The Ethical Challenges of Patient Self Education”

2019

  • January: “Codes of Ethics - Use and Misuse”
  • February: "Making Decisions for Others"
  • March: "In Search of Safe Discharges"
  • May: "Addressing Ethical Conflict by Understanding  Moral Obligations & Communities"
  • June: "Disability and Quality of Life"
  • September: "Decision-Making Capacity"
  • October: "Ethics Issues in Caring for Undocumented Patients"
  • November: "Should We Move From Patient-Centered Care to Patient and Professional Centered Care"
  • December: “Contracts in the Provider-Patient Relationship”

2018 

  • January: “Abusive Patients – How Much is too Much?”
  • February: “The Downside of Being Social: When Boundaries Matter”
  • April: “Healthcare Practitioner Burnout & Suicide: The Problem & Some Interventions”
  • June: “Caring for the Homeless Among Us –  A Challenge for Healthcare Providers in LA”
  • September: “From Patient Waste to Research Samples”
  • October: “Code Status - 'Erring' on the Side of Life"
  • November: “Concerns with Electronic Medical Records"
  • December: "Perspectives on Non-Adherence"

2017

  • September: "The Ethical Challenges of Compassionate Use Programs for Experimental Drugs"
  • October: "Do Doctors and Nurses Have a Duty to Rescue?"

2016

  • January: "Do Physicians have Responsibility to Provide Recommendations Regarding Goals of Care to Surrogates of Dying Patients?"
  • February: "Physician-assisted Death"
  • March: "Ethics of Deactivating Cardiac Devices"
  • May: "Ethics of Patients Recording Clinical Encounters"
  • June: "Toward Better ICU use at the End of Life"
  • July: "Witness to Suffering: The Ethical Importance of Hearing Others’ Stories"
  • September: "The Goals of Ethics Consultation: Rejecting the Role of Ethics Police"

2015

  • January: "Concept of Vulnerability"
  • February: "Is Suffering the Enemy?"
  • March: "Personal Responsibility and Healthcare Rationing"
  • April: "Medical Futility in the Pediatric ICU"
  • June: "Professional Boundaries: physicians who give money to patients"
  • September: "Physicians as Surrogates for Unrepresented Patients"
  • October: "Illness and Empathy"
  • November: "Physician-Family-Child Relationship"

2014

  • October: "Obligations of Surgeons to Noncompliant Patients"
  • November: "Ethics of Responding to Ebola"
  • December: "Altruism, Gift Giving, and Reciprocity in Organ Donation"