Table of Contents

1: Introduction: A Primer on Surgical Ethics
2: Informed Consent and Disclosure
1. Painted into a Corner: Unexpected Complications in
Treating a Jehovah's Witness
2. A Patient Refuses Consent for Life-Saving Surgery
3. Consent for an Intraoperative Video Recording
3: Professional Self-Regulation
11. What to Tell Patients Harmed by Other Physicians
12. Eye-Witness to Incompetent Surgery
13. Military Physician's Ethical Response to
Evidence of Torture
4: Innovation and Research
22. When Does Conventional Surgery Become Research?
23. A Surgeon's Obligation When Performing New
Procedures
24. The Ethics of Innovative Approaches for
Well-Established Procedures
5: Conflicts of Interest and Conflicts of Commitment
33. Intentional Over-Treatment: The Unmentionable
Conflict of Interest
34. Patient Responsibilities, Family Responsibilities
35. Non-Financial Conflicts of Interest
6: The Ethics of Surgery as a Surgery
44. Ethics of Physician's Income 45. Ethics of Personal Advertising in Surgery
46. Ethics of Institutional Marketing: The Role of Physicians
7: Medical Professionalism Challenges: Assaults from
Within and Without
56. Going Public with Amazing Cases: Fiat or Fiasco?
57. Unprofessional Behavior the Disrupts: Crossing the
Life
58. My Brother's Keeper: Ethics of Uncompensated
Care for Undocumented Immigrants
8: End-of-Life Issues
63. Futility and Surgical Intervention
64. Advanced Age, Dementia, and an Abdominal Aneurysm: Intervene?
65. Complying with Advance Directives in the OR
66. Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm in a Death Row Inmate
67. Telling the Truth About Terminal Diseases
68. Arsenic and Old Lace: End of Life Care in the
Post-Operative
69. Training on Newly Deceased Patients
70. Withdrawal of Life-Sustaining Low-Burden Care
71. Physician Assisted Suicide: Has it Come of Age?

Reviews

"This book is a needed addition to the growing body of work focused on a particular specialty in healthcare. It will be an invaluable tool for surgeons and those involved in the formation of future surgeons, not only as technicians, but as those charged with upholding the virtues which engender the trust of their patients."--Doody's - a 5 star review!
"Anyone who thinks the field of medical ethics is wishy-washy and fuzzy will be challenged by this book. The authors take on hard cases and give hard answers. The case format is perfect for discussion in academic centers and for residents as part of professional competency training. The book provides a thoughtful and interesting case-oriented approach to contemporary medical ethics in general."--New England Journal of Medicine
"The beauty of this book is that it speaks in the language of surgeons as well as ethicists. The level of clinical detail in the cases allows each to hit the resident or practicing surgeon very close to him. The ethical analysis, while brief, shows a broad familiarity with the ethics literature. Furthermore, there are many references to episodes in surgical history, grounding the discourse in a historical context--a strategy endearing to the heart of every
surgeon....This collection of cases and analyses goes a long way in laying the foundation for a generation of surgeons who must cultivate the virtues necessary to care for the surgical patient."--Ethics
and Medicine