The Washington Post has compelling coverage of the Austin, Texas case in which clinicians withdrew life-sustaining treatment from Michael Hickson over the objections of his wife and apparently on the basis of his unrelated disabilities.
Yet, per...
A growing number of states have enacted Simon's Law over the past four years (e.g. AZ, KS, MO). They take different forms. Some require only that parents be informed that clinicians plan to write a DNR order for a child. Others prohibit writing the ord...
A growing number of states have enacted Simon's Law over the past four years (e.g. AZ, KS, MO). They take different forms. Some require only that parents be informed that clinicians plan to write a DNR order for a child. Others prohibit writing the ord...
07/04/2020
Surreal Times
Happy Independence Day to all our readers! Vacation time for our family means spending some time at a cottage in a northern state, and often includes early July, which is the case this year. It occasions a simpler life, punctuated with small town activities. One of those activities has been the 4th of July parade. …
Here is a terrific video that explains how Final Exit Network works to provide a non-medical end-of-life last resort exit option.
FEN is an end-of-life organization that was founded in 2004. Their core service is screening and advising clients on how ...
Here is a terrific video that explains how Final Exit Network works to provide a non-medical end-of-life last resort exit option.
FEN is an end-of-life organization that was founded in 2004. Their core service is screening and advising clients on how ...
Stephen Latham has a brief insightful commentary in the May/June 2020 Hastings Center Report noting that the recent focus on hospital triage issues dramatically highlights the extent to which we are still doing end-of-life medicine badly.
Latham observes that typical triage policy "has teeth—saves resources and lives—only if the regular practice of hospitals outside pandemic emergency is to offer intensive and invasive treatment to patients who, in the judgment of their treating physicians, will not survive that treatment."
And "it is the practice of hospitals to offer such treatment. . . . Every intensivist in America can name a patient in their unit right now who is receiving invasive critical care at the request of proxy decision-makers but will not survive to discharge."
Latham observes that typical triage policy "has teeth—saves resources and lives—only if the regular practice of hospitals outside pandemic emergency is to offer intensive and invasive treatment to patients who, in the judgment of their treating physicians, will not survive that treatment."
And "it is the practice of hospitals to offer such treatment. . . . Every intensivist in America can name a patient in their unit right now who is receiving invasive critical care at the request of proxy decision-makers but will not survive to discharge."
Stephen Latham has a brief insightful commentary in the May/June 2020 Hastings Center Report noting that the recent focus on hospital triage issues dramatically highlights the extent to which we are still doing end-of-life medicine badly.
Latham observes that typical triage policy "has teeth—saves resources and lives—only if the regular practice of hospitals outside pandemic emergency is to offer intensive and invasive treatment to patients who, in the judgment of their treating physicians, will not survive that treatment."
And "it is the practice of hospitals to offer such treatment. . . . Every intensivist in America can name a patient in their unit right now who is receiving invasive critical care at the request of proxy decision-makers but will not survive to discharge."
Latham observes that typical triage policy "has teeth—saves resources and lives—only if the regular practice of hospitals outside pandemic emergency is to offer intensive and invasive treatment to patients who, in the judgment of their treating physicians, will not survive that treatment."
And "it is the practice of hospitals to offer such treatment. . . . Every intensivist in America can name a patient in their unit right now who is receiving invasive critical care at the request of proxy decision-makers but will not survive to discharge."
07/02/2020
Last Rights: The Case for Assisted Dying
Sarah Wootton and Lloyd Riley of the campaign group Dignity in Dying have just published Last Rights: The Case for Assisted Dying.
They argue that our laws and culture governing death and dying need radical reform and present a vision of what dy...
07/02/2020
Last Rights: The Case for Assisted Dying
Sarah Wootton and Lloyd Riley of the campaign group Dignity in Dying have just published Last Rights: The Case for Assisted Dying.
They argue that our laws and culture governing death and dying need radical reform and present a vision of what dy...
Bioethics TV