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Ethical Dilemmas and the Law

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Acute Care Surgery

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Abstract

Professional responsibilities have been a concern of surgeons since antiquity; however, the last 25 years have displayed a dramatic growth of both professional and societal attention to moral and ethical issues involved in the delivery of health care. This increased interest in medical ethics has occurred because of such factors as the greater technological power of modern medicine, the assigning of social ills to the responsibility of medicine, the growing sophistication of patients and the information available to them, the efforts to protect the civil rights of the increasing disadvantaged groups in our society, and the continued rapidly escalating costs of health care, including medical malpractice costs. All of these factors contribute to the urgency of dealing with ethical and moral issues involved in the delivery of modern emergency surgical care.1

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Washington University in St. Louis, Barnes-Jewish Hospital, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Ira J. Kodner MD

  2. Einstein Institute for Science, Health, and the Courts, Chevy Chase, MD, USA

    Daniel M. Freeman AB, JD

  3. Department of Surgery, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Robb R. Whinney DO & Douglas J. E. Schuerer MD

Authors
  1. Ira J. Kodner MD
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  2. Daniel M. Freeman AB, JD
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  3. Robb R. Whinney DO
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  4. Douglas J. E. Schuerer MD
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA, USA

    L. D. Britt MD, MPH (Brickhouse Professor of Surgery and Chairman) (Brickhouse Professor of Surgery and Chairman)

  2. Department of Surgery, Oregon Health Sciences University, Portland, OR, USA

    Donald D. Trunkey MD (Professor) (Professor)

  3. Emory University School of Medicine, Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, GA, USA

    David V. Feliciano MD (Professor of Surgery, Chief of Surgery) (Professor of Surgery, Chief of Surgery)

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© 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

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Kodner, I.J., Freeman, D.M., Whinney, R.R., Schuerer, D.J.E. (2007). Ethical Dilemmas and the Law. In: Britt, L.D., Trunkey, D.D., Feliciano, D.V. (eds) Acute Care Surgery. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-69012-4_45

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-69012-4_45

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-0-387-34470-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-0-387-69012-4

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

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