For somewhere between $200 and $2,000, curious individuals can sign up with an Internet service, send in a drop of saliva or some cheek cells and receive a report on their ancestry and their predisposition to a number of medical conditions from type 2 diabetes to baldness or back pain. "Ethics Talk" interviewed two people who used the online service for very different reasons. To read more about genetic testing and information, see the September 2009 issue of Virtual Mentor at www.journalofethics.org.

Fewer medical students are selecting primary care specialties such as family medicine and pediatrics, a trend which could cause a shortage in the types of physicians society needs most. Two medical students explain the reasons for their choices of specialty and comment on possible reasons for the trend.

Today&s patients are better informed about possible causes and treatments for their symptoms than ever before. A physician works through a challenging encounter with a patient who comes to her office demanding a particular brand name drug and will accept nothing less--or so it seems at first.

Graduating medical students still report being belittled and mistreated by their instructors and clinical faculty. Two medical students and a resident physician discuss this phenomenon and the procedures that all accredited medical schools have in place for responding to student reports of mistreatment.

More and more employer-based insurance plans are using incentives and penalties to encourage healthy lifestyle choices among those they insure. Sometimes these wellness programs employ "carrots" and "sticks" that limit benefits or charge more for coverage. A company benefits representative, health insurance executive, and a physician discuss the new trend in wellness programs and how they affect patients, the patient-physician relationship, and employers. To read about this dilemma in detail, see the November 2008 issue of Virtual Mentor at www.journalofethics.org.

This month, theme editor Subha Perni, MD, a recent graduate of the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, interviewed Elizabeth Epstein, PhD, RN, about strategies for understanding and address moral distress in clinical settings. Dr. Epstein is an associate professor of nursing at the University of Virginia.