Baylor College of Medicine Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy

09/09/2026

What do we carry with us after a training, course or conference ends? Sometimes it's a new framework. Sometimes it's a practical skill. And sometimes it's a question that keeps shaping how we think about our work.

In our newest blog, Roberto Alvarado, communications specialist at our Center, reflects on a year of professional development across our faculty and staff. Together, these experiences reflect a shared commitment to learning that reaches beyond any one individual or discipline.

Read the full blog: https://blogs.bcm.edu/2026/09/04/what-we-take-with-us-professional-development-lessons-that-last/

A look at how professional development opportunities have helped faculty and staff grow their expertise and enhance their contributions to research, education and healthcare.

09/03/2026

Interested in becoming a clinical ethicist? Our Center is hosting an informal webinar to introduce prospective applicants to our Clinical Ethics Fellowship.

Join us on Monday, Sept. 21 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. CST for a chance to connect with our faculty, hear their insights and personal experiences from the program, and ask any questions you have, whether you're ready to apply or simply curious.

📅 Join the webinar: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/292234003401392?p=ZdRmkTwoWsf4kKeIIZ

📖 Learn more about the program: https://www.bcm.edu/academic-centers/medical-ethics-and-health-policy/education/clinical-ethics-fellowship/program-overview

✍️ Apply here: https://jobs.bcm.edu/job/Postdoctoral-Associate-Clinical-Ethics-Fellow/26132-en_US/ (application deadline: Oct. 31, 2026)

Know a colleague or student who'd be a great fit? Tag them below or share this post.

08/31/2026

It's 2 a.m., your child is running a fever, and you're weighing an ER trip against your gut instinct. More parents than ever are turning to AI chatbots for answers, but how reliable is that advice?

In our newest blog, Dr. Conner Earl shares his perspective as both a parent and someone who helps train AI models. He points to research showing chatbots can get pediatric diagnoses wrong the majority of the time, and explains why AI's tendency to sound confident while hallucinating information makes it especially risky for children's health decisions. Dr. Earl offers practical guidance on when AI can help, like organizing questions for a pediatrician, and when it's best left aside, like assessing whether a symptom is a true emergency.

Read the full blog: https://blogs.bcm.edu/2026/08/28/dr-google-meet-dr-gpt-tips-on-using-ai-for-medical-advice-for-children/

The growing use of AI by parents seeking health advice for their children, including both its potential benefits and its limitations

08/27/2026

Postpartum psychosis and postpartum depression are widely discussed, but neither exists as a standalone diagnosis in the DSM. In a new blog for Bioethics Today, Dr. Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby examines what that gap in classification means for the women it affects.

Drawing on testimony from a recent, closely watched criminal trial, Dr. Blumenthal-Barby explores how the DSM's narrow four-week window for a "peripartum onset" specifier diverges from current obstetric guidance, and how diagnostic categories shape what clinicians are trained to recognize and what patients are told to watch for.

Read the full piece: https://bioethicstoday.org/blog/in-the-news-when-psychiatry-fails-women-lessons-from-the-lindsay-clancy-trial/

When Psychiatry Fails Women: Lessons from the Lindsay Clancy Trial Lindsay Clancy is a former labor and delivery nurse who is on trial for the January 24,

08/26/2026

Amid surging interest in psychedelic therapies, Americans are increasingly traveling abroad, often to Mexico and Latin America, for treatments that remain illegal in the U.S., but few understand the risks involved.

Dr. Amy McGuire is a co-author of a recent JAMA study examining safety protocols at 49 psychedelic retreats and clinics in the U.S. and abroad. The study found a patchwork of standards: less than half of surveyed facilities employed a medical professional, and only about 10% had staff with emergency medical training. Dr. McGuire is quoted in a new The New York Times investigation into the dangers of unregulated psychedelic tourism, including several patient deaths and reports of sexual assault.

"We're seeing all of these for-profit organizations pop up, operating in this quasi-medical space without the appropriate safeguards," Dr. McGuire told The Times. "And that's where some of the real danger can come in."

Read the full investigation: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/26/health/psychedelic-treaments-ibogaine-mexico.html

Read the study here: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2843513

Participants, often in vulnerable states, have little recourse if mistreated or injured.

08/24/2026

It's a scenario many clinicians know well: a frail, unresponsive patient with family nearby who rarely visit, leaving nurses and care teams to carry the emotional weight alone. It's only human to feel some frustration in these moments, but is it ethical to expect, or even request, family presence at the bedside?

Dr. Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby and collaborators explore this question in a new paper, "Can I Get a Witness? The Ethical Dimensions of Family Presence in Patient Suffering," published in The Hastings Center Report. Drawing on firsthand clinical experience, the authors examine the psychology behind clinicians' desire for family "moral reckoning," and ultimately conclude that requesting a family member witness suffering as a form of accountability is ethically indefensible, however understandable the underlying frustration may be.

Read the paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hast.70037

The paper was also recently featured in Health Exec: https://healthexec.com/topics/patient-care/care-delivery/ethicists-clinicians-arent-wrong-expect-involvement-certain-patients-families-they-wouldnt-be-right

Many nurses have spent untold hours at the bedsides of frail and fading inpatients who, despite having blood relatives in the vicinity, rarely receive visitors. In these scenarios, it’s only human for a healthcare worker to feel some measure of resentment toward the absentee family.

08/19/2026

Medical dramas have long captivated audiences, but "The Pitt" has struck a different chord with healthcare workers for its realistic depiction of the emergency department.

Our Center hosted a screening of the pilot for Baylor students, followed by a faculty panel discussion. Dr. Mary Majumder led discussion alongside colleagues from Emergency Medicine, the Humanities Expression and Arts Lab, and the Center for Professionalism on themes including patient satisfaction metrics and overcrowding, grief and moral injury, and navigating hostile interactions in high-pressure settings.

Read the full recap: https://bcmfamily.bcm.edu/2026/08/18/the-pitt-inspires-conversations-on-ethics-in-the-emergency-department/

By Molly Chiu

Medical TV shows have captivated audiences for decades, with shocking patient cases and over-the-top hospital drama. Last year, “The Pitt” emerged as a new favorite, praised by many who work in hea…

08/17/2026

What if your surgeon could combine your imaging, lab results, movement data and wearable device information into an evolving virtual model of you? That's the promise of a healthcare "digital twin," a technology now being explored in spine care.

In our newest blog, Samer G. Salman and Rohan A. Phadke, medical students at Baylor College of Medicine, unpack findings from their recent scoping review of digital twins and multimodal AI in spine care. They found the field remains largely conceptual, with no spine-specific digital twin yet shown to improve clinical decisions or patient outcomes, and outline key ethical risks, from false certainty in AI predictions to unclear accountability when a model gets it wrong.

Read the full blog: https://blogs.bcm.edu/2026/08/14/the-ethics-of-digital-twins-in-spine-care/

Digital twins could personalize spine care, but current evidence suggests they should support, not replace, clinical decision-making

08/14/2026

Maternal Mortality Review Committees (MMRCs) exist to evaluate pregnancy-related deaths and guide life-saving public health action. But in the post-Dobbs era, Texas has offered a preview of how states may delay or restrict this critical data, undermining transparency and public trust.

Dr. Faith Fletcher and collaborators co-authored a new editorial in the American Journal of Public Health arguing that suppressing maternal mortality data isn't just a technical failure, it's an ethical one, particularly given projections that abortion bans could increase Black maternal mortality by a third.

Read the full article: https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308343

American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) from the American Public Health Association (APHA)

08/12/2026

Bioethics has traditionally focused on the obligations of individual clinicians, but what about the hospitals and health systems they work within? What can patients reasonably expect of these institutions, and how should they be held accountable when their practices, including aggressive billing, cause harm?

Dr. Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby co-authored a new article in The American Journal of Bioethics with joint faculty Dr. Peter Ubel, former fellow Dr. Bryanna Moore, and former faculty Dr. Ryan Nelson. The paper lays conceptual groundwork for an ethics of healthcare organizations, examining hospitals' moral obligations as institutions in their own right.

Read the full article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15265161.2026.2632011

From aggressive billing practices to neglectful or discriminatory care, news stories about the misconduct of healthcare organizations abound. Yet there has been limited ethical scrutiny of hospital...