Ethical Issues in Contemporary Medicine

Nov. 14, 12:00 noon to 1:15 p.m.

Banquet Room of the Renaissance Building, 136 SW Washington, Corvallis

Speaker: Dr. Cliff Hall 

Attendance is free. Lunch is $8 for members, $10 for nonmembers. To register, send email to nickhoutman8@aol.com by Nov. 10 with “City Club Nov. 14” in the subject line.

Doctors take an oath, often simplified as “do no harm.” Day to day, in hospitals, clinics and doctors’ offices, it’s often more complicated than that. An accident victim may be unconscious and unable to give informed consent for emergency medical treatment. Another patient with a life-threatening illness requires, but can’t pay for, a costly surgery and future care. In a third case, a physician recommends that a child receive a vaccine despite the parents’ objection. 

Each of these situations requires the application of medical ethics. Physicians sometimes struggle to balance their growing ability to enhance and maintain life through technology with fundamental principles of dignity, autonomy, cost effectiveness and confidentiality. Ethicists consider the factors that underlie medical decisions and advise providers on courses of action.

At the November 14 City Club meeting, Dr. Cliff Hall, chair of the Ethics Committee at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center, will address these and other circumstances that affect the delivery of modern medical care. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency and Pulmonary Disease/Critical Care Fellowship in 1973, practicing at the Corvallis Clinic until 2001, when he became director of Good Sam’s Hospitalist Service. Subsequently he became the Internal Medicine Residency Program Director (2007-2009) and is currently a Palliative Care physician at Good Sam.