Complex Ethics Consultations: Cases that Haunt Us

Clinical ethicists encounter the most emotionally eviscerating medical cases possible. They struggle to facilitate resolutions founded on good reasoning embedded in compassionate care. This book fills the considerable gap between current texts and the continuing educational needs of those actually facing complex ethics consultations in hospital settings. 28 richly detailed cases explore the ethical reasoning, professional issues, and the emotional aspects of these impossibly difficult consultations. The cases are grouped together by theme to aid teaching, discussion and professional growth. The cases inform any reader who has a keen interest in the choices made in real-life medical dilemmas as well as the emotional cost to those who work to improve the situations. On a more advanced level, this book should be read by ethics committee members who participate in ethics consultations, individual ethics consultants, clinicians who seek education about complex clinical ethics cases, and bioethics students.

Paul J. Ford is Associate Staff, Bioethics and Neurology, The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and Assistant Professor, Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA.

Denise M. Dudzinski is Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical History and Ethics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She is Chief of the Ethics Consultation Service and provides organizational ethics consultation at University of Washington Medical Center, USA.