KIE: Developments in medical ethics in the preceding year are the subject of this report, which concentrates on four major areas of ethical controversy. Referring to reports of the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research and other recent publications, Veatch discusses the issues of caring for dying patients, treating severely handicapped newborns, procuring organs for transplantation, and allocating medical resources based on economic considerations. He suggests that the traditional ethic of doing what is best for the individual patient will no longer serve, and that a social ethical theory for health care is needed.