Awaiting the governor’s signature, Vermont is poised to become the fourth state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. While Oregon and Washington legalized physician-aid-in-dying through public referendum and Montana through a court decision, Vermont’s is occurring through the legislative process.

The first U.S. aid-in-dying law was the Oregon 1994 Death with Dignity Act. The law faced a referendum to appeal it in 1997 and a Bush administration court challenge was ruled on in 2006.

The Vermont law mirrors those of Oregon and Washington.…

TESTICULAR CRYOPRESERVATION FROM CHILDREN

END OF LIFE DECISION MAKING FOR PATIENTS WHO HAVE
ATTEMPTED SUICIDE…

For two decades, people in bioethics and medicine have extolled the virtues of advance directives. These documents allow a person to (a) list procedures, treatments, and values regarding desired future medical care and (b) designate an individual to be a surrogate decision-maker, when the patient lacks the capacity to make decisions and communicate them. Studies show that nearly 21% of adults today have completed such documents. And yet there is substantial evidence that advance directives are of limited utility.…

DO RESEARCHERS HAVE A DUTY TO LOOK FOR GENETIC INCIDENTAL FINDINGS?

UPDATE TO THE ETHICS CONSULTATION CORE COMPETENCIES…

Coming to the decision that a treatment is futile—meaning that further medical treatment would have no useful result and should not be started or continued—is a decision made with hesitation or at times not at all, either by the patient or family or, unfortunately, even by the physician. Why is that so? There are probably many reasons including misunderstanding by the patient or family regarding the limits of a treatment or the natural course of the illness or an unwillingness by the physician to raise issues of futility with them either because of the difficulty of communication or because unwillingness to admit professional defeat or even, who knows, perhaps some other self-interest.…