Ethics timeline: 1981 to 1999

1982
AMA adopts resolution calling for increased representation among women and minority physicians

1985
Judicial Council becomes Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs

1986
AMA provides professional guidelines relating to a physician's personal, clinical

AMA passes resolution opposing acts of discrimination against AIDS patients and any legislation that would lead to such categorical discrimination or that would involve patient-physician confidentiality

AMA adopts policy prohibiting investment of AMA funds in tobacco stocks and urging medical schools and parent universities to eliminate investments in corporations that produce or promote use of tobacco

1987
In School Board of Nassau County v. Gene H. Arline, US Supreme Court rules that individuals with infectious diseases are considered "handicapped" under anti-discrimination laws, and decisions as to whether they are "otherwise qualified" for employment should be based on "reasonable medical judgments" made on a case by case basis, as outlined in a friend-of-the-court brief provided by the AMA

1989
AMA develops National HIV Policy reiterating physicians' ethical responsibilities to treat HIV patients whose condition is within the physicians' realm of competence

AMA files brief on behalf of Cruzan family in US Supreme Court caseCruzan v. Missouri Department of Health; AMA holds that the guardian has a right to refuse medical treatment for a patient in a persistive vegetative state. Court later rules that states have the right to regulate food withdrawal

1990
AMA adopts guidelines governing gifts to physicians from industry

1993
AMA passes resolution declaring physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally inconsistent with the physician's professional role

1994
AMA drafts the Patient Protection Act. Elements of the Act were included in every health system reform bill reported out of committee in both the House and Senate

1995
JAMA publishes an issue examining tobacco industry through corporate documents of Brown and Williamson Tobacco Company

AMA drafts the Patient Protection Act II bill with two goals: protection for patients through increased disclosure requirement and managed care fairness; and physicians need to have defined rights and protections from arbitrary separation from managed care plans

1997
In conjunction with the AMA's sesquicentennial observance, "Ethics and Modern Medicine," the AMA's first ethics conference is held in Philadelphia, the city of the AMA's founding

AMA renews its emphasis on medical ethics by establishing the Institute for Ethics. The Institute's mission is to provide a forum for the timely exploration and discussion of the tough decisions now affecting physicians and their patients. The Institute provides practical physician outreach and guidance as well as scholarly research for end-of-life issues, genetics, professionalism and managed care

1998
The AMA's Task Force on Association/Corporate Relations develops definitive standards that guide the conduct of corporate relationships involving the AMA and produces a report on such principles, standards, and guidelines

Named after the co-writers of the original Code of Medical Ethics, the AMA selects its first recipient of the Isaac Hays, MD and John Bell, MD Leadership in Medical Ethics Award

1999
Through an educational grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the AMA Institute for Ethics' Educating Physicians on End-of-Life Care project provides training to practicing physicians on the core skills needed to provide quality end-of-life care