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Ethical considerations in chronic musculoskeletal disease

  • Ethics (CR MacKenzie and I de Melo-Martín, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Reviews in Musculoskeletal Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Chronic diseases compromise the life of the sufferer, encumber their families, and exert intractable burdens on the health-care system. With the aging of the population, such conditions have become the primary determinants of morbidity and mortality and the leading cause of disability in our society. Despite the serious challenges they impose, the ethical discourse engendered by them has lagged behind that of acute care medicine. Of particular relevance are the challenges to individual autonomy, as the dilemmas arising in the chronic care setting have not only medical but personal and societal dimensions, may require the input of multiple participants, and resolve over longer periods of time. As such, the conventional model of autonomy is often inadequate to address problems in the chronic care setting. This paper deals with this dilemma through an examination of a clinical scenario. A framework for the exploration of ethical problems in the chronic care setting is thus presented.

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Conflict of Interest

C. Ronald MacKenzie and Inmaculada de Melo-Martin declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rheumatology and Medicine Hospital for Special Surgery, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY, 10021, USA

    C. Ronald MacKenzie

  2. Department of Medicine, Division of Medical Ethics, Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, 402 East 67th Street, New York, NY, 10065-6304, USA

    Inmaculada de Melo-Martin

Authors
  1. C. Ronald MacKenzie
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  2. Inmaculada de Melo-Martin
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Correspondence to C. Ronald MacKenzie.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Ethics

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MacKenzie, C.R., de Melo-Martin, I. Ethical considerations in chronic musculoskeletal disease. Curr Rev Musculoskelet Med 8, 128–133 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12178-015-9271-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12178-015-9271-1

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