Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Section on Bioethics
Ethics Session at Cardiothoracic Surgery Meetings

(Abbreviations: AATS = American Association for Thoracic Surgery; STS = Society of Thoracic Surgeons; STSA = Southern Thoracic Surgical Association; WTSA = Western Thoracic Surgical Association)

STS, January 2011. Ethics Forum: Blood transfusion may be given for imminent exsanguination of a Jehovah’s Witness patient. Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Keith Naunheim; Con: Charles Bridges

STS, January 2010. Ethics Forum: Financial links between industry and physician consultants should be severed. Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Stephen Immelt; Con: Vincent Gaudiani.

STSA, November 2009. Ethics Forum: Impending Loss of Insurance Coverage Is an Indication to Proceed with Complex, Expensive Surgery. Moderator: Robert Sade Pro: Tony Estrera; Con: John Ikonomidis

STS, January 2009. Ethics Forum: Saving lives is more important than abstract moral concerns: financial incentives should be used to increase organ donation. Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Benjamin Hippen; Con: Lainie Ross.

STSA, November 2008. Ethics Forum: Ethical obligation of surgeons to non-compliant patients: Can a surgeon refuse to operate on an intravenous drug-abusing patient with recurrent aortic prosthesis infection? Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Michael DiMaio; Con: Tomas Salerno

AATS, May 2008. Live surgery at national and regional cardiothoracic meetings should be outlawed.  Moderator: Craig Miller; Pro: Duke Cameron; Con: Hugo Vanermen

STS, January 2008. Ethics Forum:  No heroic measures—how soon is too soon to stop?. Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Thomas D’Amico; Con: Mark Krasna.

STSA, November 2007. Cardiothoracic surgical outcomes should be published in the lay press. Pro: Jeffrey Jacobs; Con: Robert Cerfolio

STSA, November 2007.  Ethics Forum: A clash of rights: should smoking tobacco products in public places be legally banned?  Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Carolyn Dresler; Con: Mark Cherry

STS, January 2007. Ethics Forum: Professionalism meets commerce: tighter regulation of conflicts of interest in surgeon-industry relations is needed. Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Jerome Kassirer; Con: Thomas Stossel.

STSA, November 2006.  Ethics Forum: Politely refuse the pen and note pad: gifts from industry to physicians harm patients.  Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Kenneth Iserson; Con: Robert Cerfolio

AATS, April 2006. Developing the Academic Surgeon Symposium: Dealing with conflict of interest in academics. Andrew Wechsler

STS, January 2006. Medical Legal Symposium: As a practicing surgeon, when should I quit?   Robert Sade

STS, January 2006. Medical Legal Symposium: As surgeons, are we ethically obligated to serve as the plaintiff’s expert witness, or do we have a free choice? Robert Sade

STS, January 2006.  Ethics Forum: Our health care system at the crossroads: single payer or market reform? Moderator: Robert Sade; Single payer: David Himmelstein; Market reform: John Goodman.

STS, January 2006.  The ethics of conflicts of interest. Richard Sanderson.

STSA, November 2005.  Ethics Forum: surgical innovation is too dangerous to remain unregulated. Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Haavi Morreim; Con: Mike Mack.

AATS, April 2005.  Controversies in Cardiothoracic Surgery:  “Therapeutic cloning should be supported to provide stem cells for CT research and treatment.”  Pro: Paul Berg;  Con: Eric Cohen.

STS, January 2005. Ethics Forum: Medical ethics collide with public policy:  LVAD for a patient with leukemia.  Moderator: Robert Sade;  Speakers:  Gov. Richard Lamm; Patrick McCarthy.

STSA, November 2004. Ethics Forum: Surgical errors should always be disclosed to the patient. Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Gus Mavroudis;  Con: Keith Naunheim.

AATS, April 2004.  Controversies in Cardiothoracic Surgery:  "The legal profession is the guardian of medical standards.”  Moderator: Joseph Bongiovi;  Pro: John Romano;  Con: Michael Royce

STS, January 2004.  Patient safety as an ethical issue.  Charles Bosk.

STSA, November 2003. Ethics Forum: Are thoracic surgeons ethically obligated to serve as expert witnesses for the plaintiff?  Moderator: Robert Sade; Pro: Donald Watson; Con: Francis Robicscek

WTSA, June 2003.  Medicare and LVRS.  Joel Cooper.

AATS, May 2003.  Developing the Academic Surgeon Symposium:  "Do no harm?  Is it immoral to utilize living persons as sources of organs and tissues for transplantation?"  Arthur Caplan

Panel Discussion:  Ethical dilemmas in cardiothoracic surgery.  Moderator:  Ralph Damiano;  Panel: Arthur Caplan, Bruce Lytle, Martin McKneally, Richard Weisel.

AATS, May 2003.  Controversies in Cardiothoracic Surgery:  "Attending cardiothoracic surgeons should also be subject to work-hour regulations".  Moderator: Craig Miller;  Pro: David Dinges;  Con: Irving Kron.

STS, January 2003. Ethics Forum: Surgeons are ethically obligated to refer patients to other surgeons who achieve better results. Nicholas Kouchoukos;  Con: Lawrence Cohn.

STSA, November 2002. Ethics Forum: Reduced work hours: and Surgeons should spend more time with family, community, and life outside the hospital. Moderator:  Robert Sade;  Pro: Ross Ungerleider; con: Joe Coselli,

WTSA, June 2002.  Controversies in Thoracic Surgery.  “Lung volume reduction surgery and the NETT:  A good concept gone awry?”  Moderator:  John Benfield;  Pro: Douglas Wood;  Con: Richard Whyte.

AATS, May 2002.  Controversies in Cardiothoracic Surgery.  “Peer review is the best way to insure quality patient care; Public reporting of surgical results is unnecessary (and misleading)”  Moderator: James Cox;  Pro: William Nugent;  Con: Mark Chassin.

STS, January 2002.  Educational Forum Honorary Lecture.  “Ethical issues in surgery”.  Robert Sade.

STSA, November 2001. Ethics Forum: Cardiothoracic surgeons should make decisions to operate solely on medical grounds:  It is wrong to consider insurance coverage, practice mortality data, and cardiologist pressures. Moderator: Robert Sade;  Pro: Randolph Chitwood;  Con: Ronald Elkins.

WTSA, June 2001.  C. Walton Lillehei Point-Counterpoint:  The influence of industry on the practice of cardiothoracic surgery:  Appropriate or inappropriate?   Robert Sade and Thomas Fogarty.

AATS, May 2001.  Controversies in Cardiothoracic Surgery.  “Is it ethical to advertise surgical results to increase referrals?” Moderator: Tirone David;  Pro: Delos Cosgrove;  Con: Craig Miller.

STS, January 2001. Post-Graduate Course Ethics Lecture.  “Ethical issues in introducing new technology”. Martin McKneally.

STSA, November 1999.  Post-Graduate Course Lecture.  Why surgeons don’t talk about ethics.  Robert Sade.