Ethical issues are embedded in every clinical encounter between patients and clinicians. In order to practice excellent clinical care, clinicians must understand ethical issues such as informed consent, decisional capacity, surrogate decision making, truth telling, confidentiality, privacy, the distinction between research and clinical care, and end-of-life care. This popular, clinically-oriented guide provides crystal-clear case-based coverage of the ethical situations encountered in everyday medical practice. introduces the proven Four Box Method—a much-needed pattern for collecting, sorting, and ordering the facts of a clinical ethical problem. This easy-to-apply system is based on simple questions about medical indications, patient preferences, quality of life, and contextual features that explain clinical ethics and help clinicians formulate a sound diagnosis and treatment strategy. In each chapter, the authors discuss case examples and provide analysis, comments, and specific recommendations. The book is divided into the four topics that constitute the essential ethical structure of every clinical encounter: