Article: Can I Get a Witness? The Ethical Dimensions of Family Presence in Patient Suffering
Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Trevor M. Bibler, Holland Kaplan, Adam Omelianchuk, and Joanna Smolenski
For patients who are suffering, the bedside presence of a family member can provide comfort, and many people hold that there is moral value in being present with a conscious, suffering patient. Yet what is the moral significance of the absence of family members when a patient is minimally conscious or unconscious and not aware of their absence?
Other Voices
Moral Worlds and Institutional Scripts at the End of Life
Patrick McCruden and Rachelle Barina
“Where are they?” The Range and Implications of Clinician Reactions to Absent Families
Joshua Hauser
Bearing Witness at the Bedside: The Role-Specific Obligations of Surrogate Decision-Makers
Julia Kolak
Also in this issue:
Essay: Delusion Is Not a Bug: AI, Psychiatry, and the Ethics of Uncertainty
Brent R. Carr
Article: Filling the Network Gap in Research Ethics: Analyzing Ethical Issues at Scale in Big Team Science
Susan M. Wolf, Gillian H. Roehrig, Timothy L. Pruett, Korkut Uygun, Adam Koch, Claire Colby McVan, Evelyn Brister, Shawneequa L. Callier, Alexander M. Capron, James F. Childress, Rosario Isasi, Andrew D. Maynard, Kenneth A. Oye, Paul B. Thompson, and Terrence R. Tiersch
Table of Contents: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1552146x/2026/56/4
For more information, contact:
Susan Gilbert
Director of Communications
The Hastings Center for Bioethics
845-424-4040 x244
gilberts@thehastingscenter.org .
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People
13-Aug-2026