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3Ethical Complexities in Utilizing Artificial Intelligence for Surrogate Decision MakingAmerican Journal of Bioethics 24 (7): 1-2. 2024.Ms. P. is in the ICU with respiratory failure and sepsis. She has been on a ventilator for almost a week, and now has impending kidney failure. Her children, who have been taking turns at the bedsi...
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1Navigating Tensions Between Law and Ethics in Surrogate Decision MakingAmerican Journal of Bioethics 24 (7): 127-128. 2024.One way of thinking about the tension this case presents is as a simple conflict between law and ethics: Does the team follow the patient’s legally authorized surrogate, or the surrogate who is bet...
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18Consistently Inconsistent: Does Inconsistency Really Indicate Incapacity?HEC Forum 35 (3): 215-222. 2023.While it is not explicitly included in capacity assessment tools, “consistency” has come to feature as a central concern when assessing patients’ capacity. In order to determine whether inconsistency indicates incapacity, clinicians must determine the source of the inconsistency with respect to the process or content of a patient’s decision-making. In this paper, we outline common types of inconsistency and analyze them against widely accepted elements of capacity. We explore the question of whe…Read more
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20Building Effective Mentoring Relationships During Clinical Ethics Fellowships: Pedagogy, Programs, and PeopleHEC Forum 36 (1): 1-29. 2024.How should clinical ethicists be trained? Scholars have stated that clinical ethics fellowships create well-trained, competent ethicists. While this appears intuitive, few features of fellowship programs have been publicly discussed, let alone debated. In this paper, we examine how fellowships can foster effective mentoring relationships. These relationships provide the foundation for the fellow’s transition from novice to competent professional. In this essay, we begin by discussing our pedagog…Read more
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27Pediatric Authenticity: Hiding in Plain SightHastings Center Report 52 (1): 42-50. 2022.Hastings Center Report, Volume 52, Issue 1, Page 42-50, January/February 2022.
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14Consistently Inconsistent: Does Inconsistency Really Indicate Incapacity?HEC Forum 35 (3): 1-8. 2021.While it is not explicitly included in capacity assessment tools, “consistency” has come to feature as a central concern when assessing patients’ capacity. In order to determine whether inconsistency indicates incapacity, clinicians must determine the source of the inconsistency with respect to the process or content of a patient’s decision-making. In this paper, we outline common types of inconsistency and analyze them against widely accepted elements of capacity. We explore the question of whe…Read more
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12Is Suffering a Useless Concept?American Journal of Bioethics 1-8. forthcoming.Abstract“Suffering” is a central concept within bioethics and often a crucial consideration in medical decision making. As used in practice, however, the concept risks being uninformative, ambiguous, or even misleading. In this paper, we consider a series of cases in which “suffering” is invoked and analyze them in light of prominent theories of suffering. We then outline ethical hazards that arise as a result of imprecise usage of the concept and offer practical recommendations for avoiding the…Read more
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37Bioethics and the Moral Authority of ExperienceAmerican Journal of Bioethics 23 (1): 12-24. 2022.While experience often affords important knowledge and insight that is difficult to garner through observation or testimony alone, it also has the potential to generate conflicts of interest and unrepresentative perspectives. We call this tension the paradox of experience. In this paper, we first outline appeals to experience made in debates about access to unproven medical products and disability bioethics, as examples of how experience claims arise in bioethics and some of the challenges raise…Read more
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50Two Minds, One Patient: Clearing up Confusion About “Ambivalence”American Journal of Bioethics 22 (6): 37-47. 2021.Patients who experience difficulty making medical decisions are often referred to as “ambivalent.” However, the current lack of attention to the nuances between a cluster of phenomena that resemble...
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24What Do Psychiatrists Think About Caring for Patients Who Have Extremely Treatment-Refractory Illness?American Journal of Bioethics Neuroscience 15 (1): 51-58. 2024.Questions about when to limit unhelpful treatments are often raised in general medicine but are less commonly considered in psychiatry. Here we describe a survey of U.S. psychiatrists intended to characterize their attitudes about the management of suicidal ideation in patients with severely treatment-refractory illness. Respondents (n = 212) received one of two cases describing a patient with suicidal ideation due to either borderline personality disorder or major depressive disorder. Both pati…Read more
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34From Bridge to Destination? Ethical Considerations Related to Withdrawal of ECMO Support over the Objections of Capacitated PatientsAmerican Journal of Bioethics 23 (6): 5-17. 2022.Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is typically viewed as a time-limited intervention—a bridge to recovery or transplant—not a destination therapy. However, some patients with decision-making capacity request continued ECMO support despite a poor prognosis for recovery and lack of viability as a transplant candidate. In response, critical care teams have asked for guidance regarding the ethical permissibility of unilateral withdrawal over the objections of a capacitated patient. In this …Read more
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26Justice and Intellectual Disability In A PandemicKennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 30 (3): 319-338. 2020.If the COVID-19 crisis has brought any benefits, one is the increased attention paid to persons with disabilities in the contexts of clinical medicine and public health. There has been a great deal of insightful discussion since the outbreak about controversial disability issues the pandemic has brought to light. For a population often overlooked in both academic circles and the public square, mere visibility is a victory. There are at least two important respects in which the discussion remains…Read more
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138A Critique of the Neurodiversity ViewJournal of Applied Philosophy 38 (2): 335-347. 2021.The neurodiversity view makes both a conceptual and a political claim. Conceptually, the neurodiversity view holds that certain neurocognitive differences currently classified as disorders—autism, most notably—are best understood as forms of diversity. Politically, it holds that, rather than being medicalized and ‘treated’, neurodiversity ought to be respected in the way other human differences—such as differences in race and sexual orientation—are respected. In this article, I challenge the arg…Read more
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25Disability and Contingency CareAmerican Journal of Bioethics 20 (7): 190-192. 2020.Volume 20, Issue 7, July 2020, Page 190-192.
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21Autism Advocacy Before and After DSM-5American Journal of Bioethics 20 (4): 48-50. 2020.Volume 20, Issue 4, May 2020, Page 48-50.
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22Moral Intimacy, Authority, and DiscretionAmerican Journal of Bioethics 20 (2): 66-68. 2020.Volume 20, Issue 2, February 2020, Page 66-68.
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24Public views about quality of life and treatment withdrawal in infants: limitations and directions for future researchJournal of Medical Ethics 46 (1): 20-21. 2020.Work done within the realm of what is sometimes called ‘descriptive ethics’ brings two questions readily to mind: How can empirical findings, in general, inform normative debates? and How can these empirical findings, in particular, inform the normative debate at hand? Brick et al 1 confront these questions in their novel investigation of public views about lives worth living and the permissibility of withdrawing life-sustaining treatment from critically ill infants. Mindful of the is-ought gap,…Read more
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21Clinical Ethics Expertise: Beyond Justified Normative Recommendations?American Journal of Bioethics 19 (11): 82-84. 2019.Volume 19, Issue 11, November 2019, Page 82-84.
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30Social Reproductive Labor, Gender, and Health JusticeAmerican Journal of Bioethics 18 (10): 26-28. 2018.
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26Review of Matthew L. Baum, The Neuroethics of Biomarkers: What the Development of Bioprediction Means for Moral Responsibility, Justice, and the Nature of Mental Disorder1 (review)American Journal of Bioethics 16 (12): 20-22. 2016.
Ryan H. Nelson
Abbott Northwestern Hospital
University of Minnesota
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Abbott Northwestern HospitalOther
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Areas of Specialization
Biomedical Ethics |
Philosophy of Medicine |
Philosophy of Psychiatry |
Disability |
Areas of Interest
General Philosophy of Science |
Applied Ethics |
Normative Ethics |