Abstract

A series of essays, written by a practicing physician, on a wide variety of topics in medical ethics, including: clinical uncertainty; moral pluralism; paternalism; AIDS; organ procurement; physicians' involvement in executions; abortion; age as a factor in medical decision-making; sustaining life in a permanently acognitive patient; dementia; disagreement among patient, family, and physician; withholding nutritional support for the hopelessly ill; and the matter of who decides to write a DNR (do not resuscitate) order.