The AMA was founded in part to establish the first national code of medical ethics. Today the Code is widely recognized as authoritative ethics guidance for physicians through its Principles of Medical Ethics interpreted in Opinions of AMA’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs that address the evolving challenges of contemporary practice.
When a terminally ill patient experiences severe pain or other distressing clinical symptoms that do not respond to aggressive, symptom-specific palliation, it can be appropriate to offer sedation to unconsciousness as an intervention of last resort.
Physicians should support innovative approaches to increasing the supply of organs for transplantation but must balance this obligation with their duty to protect the interests of their individual patients. Organ donation after cardiac death is one approach being undertaken to make greater numbers of transplantable organs available.
Organ transplantation is unique in that it involves two patients, donor and recipient, both of whose interests must be protected. Concern for the patient should always take precedence over advancing scientific knowledge.
In certain situations and with special safeguards, it can be appropriate to provide experimental treatment without a participant’s informed consent. To protect the rights and welfare of participants in research on emergency medical interventions, physician-researchers must ensure that the experimental intervention has a realistic probability of providing benefit equal to or greater than standard care and that the risks associated with the research are reasonable in light of the critical nature of the medical condition and the risks associated with standard treatment.
Physicians should avoid sexual or romantic relations with any individual whose decisions directly affect the health and welfare of the patient. Physicians should refrain from sexual or romantic interactions with key third parties when the interaction would exploit trust, knowledge, influence, or emotions derived from a professional relationship with the third party or could compromise the patient’s care.
Medical training sometimes involves practicing procedures on newly deceased patients, including critical medical skills for which adequate educational alternatives are not available. Such training must balance protecting the interests of newly deceased patients, their families, society, and the profession with the need to educate health care providers.
