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Ethical and Legal Considerations

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The ASCRS Textbook of Colon and Rectal 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 factors such 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 cost 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 surgical care.1

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Ira J. Kodner MD

  2. Department of Medicine and Surgery, Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor, Director, MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, Department of Medicine Ethics Center, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Mark Siegler MD

  3. Washington Semester Program, American University, Washington, DC, USA

    Daniel M. Freeman AB, JD

  4. Department of Surgery, Citrus Valley Medical Center, Covina, CA, USA

    William T. Choctaw MD, JD

Authors
  1. Ira J. Kodner MD
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  2. Mark Siegler MD
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  3. Daniel M. Freeman AB, JD
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  4. William T. Choctaw MD, JD
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

    David E. Beck MD, FACS, FASCRS

  2. Department of Colorectal Surgery, Lahey Clinic, Tufts University School of Medicine, Burlington, Massachusetts, USA

    Patricia L. Roberts MD, FACS, FASCRS

  3. Section of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Rush Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA

    Theodore J. Saclarides MD, FACS, FASCRS

  4. Department of Surgery, Spectrum Health, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

    Anthony J. Senagore MD, FACS, FASCRS

  5. Department of Surgery, UCI Medical Center, Orange, California, USA

    Michael J. Stamos MD, FACS, FASCRS

  6. Department of Colorectal Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, Florida, USA

    Steven D. Wexner MD, FACS, FASCRS, FRCS, FRCS(Ed)

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© 2011 ASCRS (American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons)

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Kodner, I.J., Siegler, M., Freeman, D.M., Choctaw, W.T. (2011). Ethical and Legal Considerations. In: Beck, D.E., Roberts, P.L., Saclarides, T.J., Senagore, A.J., Stamos, M.J., Wexner, S.D. (eds) The ASCRS Textbook of Colon and Rectal Surgery. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1584-9_52

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1584-9_52

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-1581-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-1584-9

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