Abstract

Philosophers throughout history have long been drawn to big, important ideas that bubble up to the surface in interesting ways in myriads of disparate contexts. Following this tradition, authors in this issue engage with big ideas that percolate into clinical ethics, such as hope in healthcare, empathy in genetic counseling, the ramifications of Western cultural assumptions in clinical ethics, the proper aims of palliative hospice and palliative medicine, and the proper role of the public in pharmacovigilance.