SPOTLIGHT -
Physician-Assisted Suicide and the Autonomy Myth
In cases of assisted suicide, do patients really have rational autonomy?
Against Assisted Suicide
Should psychiatrists help patients end their own lives, even if it is technically legal?
What About Us? The Marginalization of Serious Mental Health and Substance Use
How can mental health professionals promote a true community of immunity?
The Upside and Downside of Religion, Spirituality, and Health
Clinicians may need to consider what happens to religiously oriented people when things go badly, despite their faith and prayer.
Psychiatrists Must Prevent Suicide, Not Provide It
The current Tree of Medicine is rooted in its Hippocratic soil. There are moral absolutes that our profession should stand up for, in spite of legislative or popular pressure, say the authors.
PAS Versus Involuntary Commitment: Is There a Moral Dilemma?
Physician-assisted suicide violates the norms of Hippocratic medical ethics. Involuntary hospitalization to prevent suicide affirms those norms, according to the authors.
Food for Thought
Some of the thorniest ethical dilemmas in psychiatry evolve around food: forced feeding in anorexia nervosa, artificial nutrition and hydration at the end of life, and the covert administration of psychotropic medications
Left to Their Own Devices: Issues in the Informed Consent Process for Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
There is a growing trend for patients to obtain and use tDCS devices without the interposition of a psychiatrist filling the traditional medical-legal role of learned intermediary. The authors explore various issues.
Ethics case quiz | Food for Thought
When, if ever, is it ethical to administer a medication to a patient-even an incapacitated one-without his knowledge? Read the case, and weigh in.