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In Reply: Dr Sade's comments are a useful reminder of the often divergent agendas of law and clinical ethics. However, it is clear that the AMA guidelines,¹ with which we are in agreement, may not be shared by all North American writers on medical ethics.² Given the still underdeveloped nature of ethics teaching in many medical schools worldwide,^3-4 his letter points to 2 professional development imperatives: (1) staffing, funding, and curricular status of medical ethics teaching must be strengthened, and (2) professional organizations must continue to lobby intensively for legislation that is sensitive to ethical clinical practice. As our Commentary indicates, this is particularly relevant to freedom of information legislation.

Financial Disclosures: None reported.

David J. Robinson, MRCPI; Desmond O'Neill, MD, FRCPI
arhc@amnch.ie
Department of Medical Gerontology
Adelaide & Meath Hospital
Dublin, Ireland

1. Maixner AH, Morin K, Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, American Medical Association. Confidentiality of health information postmortem. Arch Pathol Lab Med. 2001;125:1189-1192. ISI | PUBMED 2. Annas GJ. Family privacy and death—Antigone, war, and medical research. N Engl J Med. 2005;352:501-505. FREE FULL TEXT 3. Lehmann LS, Kasoff WS, Koch P, Federman DD. A survey of medical ethics education at US and Canadian medical schools. Acad Med. 2004;79:682-689. FULL TEXT | ISI | PUBMED 4. Fulford KW, Yates A, Hope T. Ethics and the GMC core curriculum: a survey of resources in UK medical schools. J Med Ethics. 1997;23:82-87. FREE FULL TEXT

Letters Section Editor: Robert M. Golub, MD, Senior Editor.

JAMA. 2007;297:2585.

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