Do No Harm is a radio magazine on medical ethics. Each edition of Do No Harm is an hour-long, intensive investigation of the most critical topics in the field. The series includes poignant features from across the country by reporters familiar to public radio listeners. Wrapped around these stories are interviews with experts, highlighted by elements of popular culture and the humanities.

Linda Belans is the host, Bev Abel is the producer and Jeremy Sugarman is the executive producer and medical ethicist. Do No Harm is made possible by generous support from the Greenwall Foundation and is currently airing on public radio stations across the country.


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Truthtelling: Helpful or Harmful?
DURATION: 60 minutes
The protest movements of the 1960s spilled over into the medical profession, dramatically changing the doctor/patient relationship, particularly when it comes to telling the truth. Since then, doctors in the United States are more likely to give patients truthful, candid diagnoses. But some believe that the truth could be harmful. This edition of Do No Harm looks at truthtelling through history, through the eyes of different cultures, and at the delicate issue of when to warn others.


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Genetics: To Test or Not to Test
DURATION: 60 minutes
While there can be benefits from genetic tests, many people are faced with decisions regarding testing they feel ill-equipped to make. The choice to have a genetic test is deeply personal, although there are implications for other family members. This edition of Do No Harm explores the lives of people who are faced with these decisions and offers ways of thinking about this issue from ethical, theological, and scientific points of view.


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Making Choices: When Patients Do and Do Not Have Options
DURATION: 60 minutes
Confronted with illness, people respond in a variety of ways when it comes to choosing treatment. Some follow their health provider’s recommendations completely, others choose a combination of treatments, still others decline treatment altogether. This edition of Do No Harm focuses on how we make those choices, and whose responsibility it is to oversee a patient’s course of treatment.


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Treatment and Trials: Balancing the Risks and Benefits
DURATION: 60 minutes
Hardly a week goes by without a headline blaring a new way to ward off illness – eat more broccoli, drink a glass of wine, coffee may prevent Parkinson disease – or to cure it. Who signs up for the research that informs these headlines? And should you participate in medical research if no other medical alternatives exist? This edition of Do No Harm gets behind the headlines to help make sense of the risks and benefits of research.


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Making Decisions: Challenges Across the Lifespan
DURATION: 60 minutes
How do we make medical decisions for ourselves and others? Sometimes, family members make their wishes clear in writing or verbally. But what if the patient is a baby? A teenager? Or a parent? And where should we turn for advice? To healthcare providers? To the web? This edition of Do No Harm looks at all these complicated issues and more.

This program is provided by Duke University as a free public service for non-commercial use. It may be copied for non-commercial educational purposes and for the personal use of the listener. It is not to be copied, rebroadcast, or distributed for any other purposes without written permission. Copyright 2001 Duke University. All rights reserved.

For information about broadcasts and other uses of this program, please email us at trent-center@duke.edu.