What recent stories from Houston hospitals tell us about the questions doctors are asking – Houston Public Media

A Memorial Hermann surgeon accused of altering records in a transplant database is one of several recent stories coming out of Houston-area hospitals that raise complex questions about medical ethics.

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A Memorial Hermann surgeon is accused of altering records in a transplant database. A federal investigation finds that three Houston surgeons left several complicated procedures to unqualified resident doctors so they could perform simultaneous operations. A Houston surgeon is accused of HIPAA violations for disclosing documents about Texas Children’s Hospital’s gender-affirming services for minors.

These three cases, along with the Texas Medical Board’s revised guidelines for exceptions to the state’s strict abortion ban, all offer recent examples of questions being raised about ethical issues at area hospitals.

In an interview with Houston matters Host Craig Cohen and medical ethicist Valerie Gutmann Koch discuss some of the ethical questions hospitals and medical professionals face when it comes to transplants, surgical schedules, medical confidentiality and laws that challenge their conscience. She also shares some thoughts on the basis on which the next major medical ethical dilemmas will arise. (Hint: There’s that pesky AI again).

Gutmann Koch is co-director of the Health Law and Policy Institute and assistant professor at the University of Houston Law Center. She is also the Director of Law and Ethics at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago.

UH Law Center