Complex Ethics Consultations: Volume 2

Clinical ethics consultants navigate some of the most challenging cases in patient care, public health, and healthcare policy. The second volume richly details haunting cases pertaining to perinatal, paediatric, and end-of life issues; neurodiversity; disability; and employment of high-tech devices. Authors explain distinctive features of consultations in rural and pandemic contexts and complicated transitions into and out of inpatient care. Cases are grouped together by theme and organized uniformly. Each chapter includes a case presentation, the authors’ professional reflections, description of haunting aspects, case outcome, and questions for discussion. Organizational ethics factors into many of the cases. The authors honestly describe the affective aspects of their work, including lingering regrets, doubts, and moral distress. They pay special attention to justice, equity and inclusivity. It is a fascinating and important read for clinicians and bioethicists engaged in clinical ethics consultations as well as ethics committee members and students.

Author Biography

Denise M. Dudzinski is Professor in Bioethics & Humanities and Pediatrics, Division of Bioethics & Palliative Care at the University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle. She is Director of the Ethics Consultation Service at UW Medicine and Director of Organizational Ethics at Seattle Children’s Hospital. Kaarkuzhali Babu Krishnamurthy is Vice-Chair of the Department of Neurology, Division Head, Epilepsy and EEG, and Chair of the Ethics Committee at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center/Boston Medical Center Healthcare. She is also a member of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and a staff neurologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Her clinical practice is focused on the care of women with epilepsy. Paul J. Ford specializes in ethical challenges in neurological diseases and directs the NeuroEthics Programs at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation with a faculty appointment in the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, Cleveland. He has performed more than two thousand ethics consultations and authored more than one hundred publications.