Teacher/student sex

I spent four happy years (9th to 12th grades) at the Horace Mann School in New York, and was startled by a New York Times article in June ti...

Improving Nursing Home Ethics

A recent conversation with a friend about his father's nursing home experience taught an important lesson about nursing home ethics. Her...

The Manners Mother Taught Us

Theresa Brown, an oncology nurse in Pittsburgh, didn't connect her column in today's New York Times to Mother's Day. But I did....

President Obama's Tucson Speech

I'm in Washington DC for three days of meetings of an Institute of Medicine committee whose assignment is to advise Secretary Sebelius o...

Christmas Tree Ethics

My friend and colleague Steve Moffic , gave me permission to quote this holiday season post from "Behavioral Healthcare." A Multi...

Harvard Pilgrim's New CEO (and my new Boss)

In February, Eric Schultz was named President and CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, where I direct the ethics program. Eric is my boss...

Will Reducing Health Care Costs Kill Patients?

David Leonhardt, economics columnist for the New York Times, continues to do superb reporting and analysis of our health system. Print journ...

Drew Altman on President Obama's Leadership

There's been lots of debate as to whether the President has been a wise leader or a wimpy neophyte in the health reform process. I'v...

Obama's Speech - Good Ethics and Good Politics

President Obama hit a home run last night. His speech brought together the three roles we need our president to take in the health reform pr...

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

In the course of trying to understand the eruption of rage against the non-existent "death panels" in the emerging health reform b...

Republicans Propose Tearing Down Medicare

I'm worried about August. Opponents of health care reform are playing public fears very skillfully. The strongest volleys of sound bites...

Should President Obama come out of the Closet on Rationing?

An editorial in yesterday's Washington Post challenges President Obama to come out of the closet about rationing and fess up to the Amer...

Professor Obama's Health Care 101 Lecture

It's worth giving a careful reading to the transcript of President Obama's July 22 press conference. It can be read as the opening ...

Peter Singer on Rationing

In yesterday's New York Times magazine, Peter Singer presents a patient, lucid explanation of the ethical and economic necessity for hea...

Letter to the Massachusetts Legislature

Dear Massachusetts Legislators - This fall you will be considering whether to put the Payment Reform Commission's recommendations for mo...

The Ethical Culture of Medicine

I'm in the Green Mountains of Vermont now, where my wife teaches for 7 weeks at Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English . ...

David Leonhardt on Rationing

In the business section of today's New York Times, economics columnist David Leonhardt has the best short discussion of rationing I...

Turning the Republican Attack on Health Care Reform on its Head

We're entering the sound bite period of health care reform. Frank Luntz, the guru of Republican phraseology and the ventriloquist behind...

The Medicare Food Fight is Underway

In yesterday's post I argued that we should create - and hold to - a budget for our heath system. Today's news shows how difficult...

More Money for Health Care = More Unhappy Doctors

The national debate about health care is heating up rapidly. We're already hearing a lot about whether we'll have the political will...