The Ethics of Medical Shop Talk

A Planned Parenthood doctor who spoke matter-of-factly about donating fetal tissue has drawn criticism from abortion opponents, who say she was entirely too cavalier. 

Barron Lerner, bioethicist, historian of medicine and internist at New York University’s Langone School of Medicine and the author of The Good Doctor: A Father, a Son, and the Evolution of Medical Ethics (Beacon Press, 2014), discusses how doctors talk about patients' body parts and organs, and how much detachment is necessary.