Bioethics.net

May 20, 2012

Why we should talk more about death (BBC News)

In this week’s Scrubbing Up opinion column, Prof Mayur Lakhani chair of the Dying Matters Coalition, urges doctors to be more open and frank about preparing patients and their families for the end of life.

May 20, 2012

Are You Making Decisions About Your Health Care in a Vacuum? (Huffington Post)

We live in a world where information is at our fingertips. You can download just about anything and have access to it almost instantly. We take control of so many aspects of our lives — we stay “informed” about our money, our financial investments, and perhaps even our health issues. But the one area where we are not informed is around issues that have to do with what choices we have as we near the end of our lives or when we are diagnosed with a life-changing illness or condition.

May 18, 2012

Top court to hear doctors' end-of-life appeal (CTV.ca)

The Supreme Court of Canada decided Thursday to hear an appeal by doctors over who has the final authority to end a comatose patient’s life. The court’s ruling on the controversial case involving a Toronto man could clear up a legal grey area that fails to clarify whether physicians or a patient’s family have the final say on when to pull the plug.

May 17, 2012

Physician's Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment: Helpful or a New Threat? (National Catholic Register)

A patient in a nursing home or hospital is increasingly likely to be asked to sign a form with a benign-sounding name: Physician’s Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment. A brightly colored document that is one page, printed on both sides, with boxes to be checked off regarding medical treatment — or the withholding of treatment — the Physician’s Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment (Polst), in an instrument for dealing with end-of-life decisions if the patient is incapacitated.

May 14, 2012

How Close Is Too Close? (Huffington Post)

As reported by the Medill News Service and subsequently covered in the Chicago Sun-Times, these scenarios are raising questions from both doctors and their patients about what is and isn’t acceptable in the doctor’s office. TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice regularly feature doctors forming friendships and even intimate relationships with the people they’re caring for. Is this what we’re supposed to expect from a visit to the doctor? Has it become the norm?

May 06, 2012

Patients' Complex Moral Issues - Doctors Need Mediators (Medical News Today)

According to a study in The American Journal of Bioethics, physicians and patients need assistance in order to deal with complex moral issues. Physicians often have the tendency to label their patients as ‘difficult’ when things become difficult, however, according to the author of the new study it actually the system that is at fault and not the patients.

May 02, 2012

Debate Over Who Should Be Allowed to Administer Anesthesia Moves to Courts (New York Times)

May 02, 2012

MedSmart Members Launches OurHealthcareSucks.com (Albany Times Union)

While politicians debate healthcare reform – and the Supreme Court ponders its constitutionality – MedSmart Members has launched its flagship website, OurHealthcareSucks.com, to alert consumers to the hidden dangers in American healthcare that have little to do with healthcare reform. These include what it describes as the dual threats of financial exploitation by unscrupulous doctors and medical mistakes that are often hidden from patients and their families.

Apr 30, 2012

In UK survey, doctors support denying treatment to smokers, the obese (MSNBC)

A majority of doctors in a United Kingdom survey supported measures to deny non-emergency medical services to smokers and the obese, The Observer newspaper reported Sunday. Although the survey by the networking website doctors.net.uk was a self-selecting poll, the site’s chief executive called the response “a tectonic shift” for the profession. The results feed into a British debate about “lifestyle rationing” by the National Health Service, the Observer reported.

Apr 30, 2012

Are online medical records safe? (Herald Sun)

Imagine if any medical practitioner could access your healthcare records at the click of a mouse. The emergency department could treat you more quickly, specialists could compare test results instantly and you wouldn’t have to remember the last time you had a tetanus shot. Welcome to the world of eHealth, a program the  Government has invested $466 million in. Its aim is to create PCEHRs (Personally Controlled Electronic Health Records) that centralise a patient’s healthcare information and, with their permission, present it to registered healthcare providers.