Clinical Ethics in Anesthesiology: A Case-Based Textbook

by Edited by Gail A. Van Norman , Stephen Jackson , Stanley H. Rosenbaum , Susan K. Palmer

• ISBN13: 9780521130646
• ISBN10: 0521130646
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-11-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Ethical issues facing anesthesiologists are more far-reaching than those involving virtually any other medical specialty. In this clinical ethics textbook, authors from across the USA, Canada and Europe draw on ethical principles and practical knowledge to provide a realistic understanding of ethical anesthetic practice. The result is a compilation of expert opinion and international perspectives from clinical leaders in anesthesiology. Building on real-life, case-based problems, each chapter is clinically focused and addresses both practical and theoretical issues. Topics include general operating room care, pediatric and obstetrical patient care, the intensive care unit, pain practice, research and publication, as well as discussions of lethal injection, disclosure of errors, expert witness testimony, triage in disaster and conflicts of interest with industry. An important reference tool for any anesthesiologist, whether clinical or research-oriented, this book is especially valuable for physicians involved in teaching residents and students about the ethical aspects of anesthesia practice.

Table of Contents

Preface

Consent and Refusal

Informed consent: respecting patient autonomy

Informed refusal: DNR orders in the patient undergoing anesthesia and surgery, and at the end of life

Informed refusal - the Jehovah's Witness patient

Surrogate decision-making

Informed consent and the pediatric patient

Do not resuscitate decisions in pediatric patients

Consent in laboring patients

Maternal-fetal conflicts: Cesarian delivery on maternal request

Consent for anesthesia for procedures with special societal implications: psychosurgery and electroconvulsive therapy

Ethical use of restraints

The use of ethics consultation regarding consent and refusal

Consent and cultural conflicts: ethical issues in pediatric anesthesiologists' participation in female genital cutting

Communitarian values in medical decision-making: Native Americans

Informed consent for perioperative testing: pregnancy testing and other tests involving sensitive patient issues

End-of-Life Issues

The principle of double effect in palliative care: euthanasia by another name?

Surgical interventions near the end of life: 'therapeutic trials'

Withholding and withdrawing life support in the intensive care unit

Discontinuing pacemakers, ventricular assist devices and implanted cardioverter-defibrillators in end-of-life care

Brain death

Ethical issues in organ donation after cardiac death

Revising the uniform anatomical gift act: the role of physicians in shaping legislation

Physician aid in dying and euthanasia

Pain Management

Ethical considerations in interventional pain management

Conjoining interventional pain management and palliative care: considerations for practice, ethics and policy

Opioid therapy in addicted patients: background and perspective from the United Kingdom

Opioid therapy in addicted patients: background and perspective from the United States

Research and Publication

Ethics in anesthesiology research using human subjects

Animal subjects research part I: do animals have rights?

Animal subjects part II: ethics of animal experimentation

Ethical function of human subjects review boards: a United States perspective

Research with vulnerable patients such as children and prisoners

The ethics of research on pain and other symptoms for which effective treatments already exist

Quality improvement initiatives: when is quality improvement actually a form of human subjects research?

Conflicts of interest in research funding

Publication ethics: obligations of authors, peer-reviewers and editors

Practice Issues

The impaired anesthesiologist - addiction

The impaired anesthesiologist - sleep deprivation

Ethical considerations regarding the disabled anesthesiologist

The abusive and disruptive physician

Sexual harrassment, discrimination and faculty-student intimate relationships in anesthesia practice

Conflicts of interest - industry gifts to physicians

Disclosure of medical errors in anesthesiology practice

Physician conscientious objection in anesthesiology practice

Anesthesiologists, the State, and Society

The ethics of expert testimony

Ethical principles regarding physician response to disasters: pandemics, natural disasters and terrorism

Triage in civilian mass casualty situations

Triage and treatment of wounded during armed conflict

Physician facilitation of torture and coercive interrogation

Physician participation in execution

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.