Virtual Mentor. May 2007, Volume 9, Number 5: 331-403. Full Issue PDF

May 2007 Contents

Beginning and End-of-Life Issues

Ethics Poll

Have you ever been denied a treatment or a prescription due to the moral convictions of a physician or those of the religious health institution where he or she worked?
Yes
No

Catholic medical education urges students to recognize the role that every patient's mind, body and spirit play in his or her overall health. Has a physician ever inquired about your spiritual well-being?
At least one physician has asked about my spiritual well being.
I have never been asked about my spiritual well-being, but I wish I had been.
I have never been asked about my spiritual well-being, and I do not think it is a physician's role to ask me.

Catholic medical education draws heavily upon the long ethical tradition of the faith, grounded in the intrinsic dignity of humans, the principle of beneficence, and the duty to serve the poor. On balance, do you think this training places physician graduates of Catholic medical schools:
At an advantage in healing relationships with all patients.
At an advantage in healing relationships with patients who are Catholic.
At a disadvantage because of the sectarian nature of the training.

From the Editor

"I Was Ill and You Cared for Me." Matthew 25: 30
Robert J. Walter
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:333-335.

Educating for Professionalism

Clinical Cases

The Question of Uterine Isolation in Catholic Health Care Ethics
Commentary by Luke Dysinger
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:336-339.

Is Artificial Nutrition and Hydration Extraordinary Care?
Commentary by Kenneth Craig Micetich
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:340-344.

The Hard Case of Palliative Sedation
Commentary by Eran Klein
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:345-349.

Journal Discussion

Reflections on Peter Clark's Moral Analysis of the Use of Methotrexate in Ectopic Pregnancies
Thomas A. Shannon
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:356-358.

Medical Education

Catholic Medical Education Emphasizes Service, Human Flourishing and Personal Growth
Myles N. Sheehan
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:350-352.

The Body and Blood of Medical School: One Student's Perspective on Jesuit Education
Jennifer K. Walter
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:353-355.

Clinical Pearl

Diagnostic Criteria for Persistent Vegetative State
Daniel Dilling
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:359-361.

Law, Policy, and Society

Health Law

Duty to Treat: Conscience and Pluralism
Kayhan Parsi
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:362-364.

Policy Forum

Understanding the Ethical Framework for Catholic Health Care
John O'Callaghan
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:365-368.

The Principle of Double Effect and Proportionate Reason
Nicholas J. Kockler
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:369-374.

Medicine and Society

Medical Futility: Legal and Ethical Analysis
Peter A. Clark
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:375-383.

Roman Catholic Ethics and the Preferential Option for the Poor
Thomas A. Nairn
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:384-387.

Op-Ed and Correspondence

Op-Ed

The Catholic Health Association's Response to the Papal Allocution on Artificial Nutrition and Hydration
Ron Hamel
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Virtual Mentor. 2007; 9:388-392.