April 11, 2021 (From Exit International) The Coöperatie Laatste Wil (CLW), together with thirty Dutch citizens, is taking the Dutch State to court to create the legal right for voluntary, elective dying at a time of one’s choosing that does…
Kim Callinan of Compassion and Choices writes about the ways the Catholic Church's Ethical and Religious Directives (ERD's) govern what kind of treatment you will receive (or NOT) at Catholic hospitals. Many of these directives influence end-of-life care. The majority…
In an article adapted from the newly-released book "The Inevitable," Dr. Lonny Shavelson, Chairman of the American Clinicians Academy on Medical Aid in Dying talks about his experiences prescribing life-ending drugs to terminally ill people in California and how he…
A daughter's story of her father's decision to end his life when he lost his independence and freedom due to Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. He was facing quadriplegia. Her dad sent her a text message…
January 16 marks Religious Freedom Day. While people’s spiritual beliefs take on heightened meaning at the end of their life, religious freedom at this time is unfortunately an aspiration, not a reality. A Jan. 4 study in the Journal of…
Medscape reported on two studies of in-hospital cardiac arrest in Covid patients. In a report from William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan, 60 of 1309 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 (4.6%) had an in-hospital cardiac arrest. Of these, 54 had documented…
by Rohin Francis, MBBS, Medlife Crisis Modern technology has blurred the lines of life and death to a confusing extent. Heart transplant operations changed the definition of death. The external corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine can keep a person "alive"…
This important discussion highlights the ways in which faith-based institutions impose religious value based treatment decisions on doctors and patients. Most often, patients enter faith-based institutions without any idea that the institution is bound by Ethical Rights Directives which can…
Covid-19 can cause Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) in which oxygen levels plunge and breathing is impossible without a ventilator. Unless there is an advance directive stating that the patient does not want ventilation, she is heavily sedated and a…
Zdogg relates a case of a 69 year old man who was subjected to 90 minutes of high-quality CPR during an ordeal in the hospital where he ultimately could not be saved due to his massive aortic dissection. The patient…
Dr. Ramy Salah, a hospice & palliative care clinical fellow at the University of California, San Francisco discusses end of life issues from an islamic perspective.
"What if the seemingly rational choices you prefer when you're healthy no longer make sense to you when you're actually confronting death?" This poignant story is told by the husband of a nurse. Throughout her life this nurse, Stephanie, was…
"The more people engage and understand death and know where it's heading ... the better prepared the person is to be able to let go to the process, and the better prepared the family is to reconcile with it, for…
Judith Graham | Kevin Md, Conditions | August 13, 2019 This article talks about: "....a common complaint: Surgeons don’t help older adults and their families understand the impact of surgery in terms people can understand, even though older patients face…
Cancer is the #1 diagnosis for those taking advantage of medical (or physician) aid in dying. This could be simply because the prognosis (to achieve the required six months or less to live) is more predictable than other diseases. This…
The 2019 Annual Report is now out For 2018 337 California individuals died from ingestion of aid-in-dying drugs, a rate of 12.6 per 10,000 deaths based on 268,4743 deaths to California residents in 2018. 23 of those received their prescriptions…
Philip Nitschke makes the point that it is an illusion that patients have choice in Medical Aid in Dying. It is the doctor who decides and no one else. The right the patient has is simply to ask the doctor…
ZDoggMD talks with emergency room physician Dr. Fred Mirarchi about misconceptions healthcare providers often have about living wills/POLSTS. Both doctors make a distinction between witnessed and unwitnessed cardiac arrests.
Melissa Bailey, Kaiser Health News June 18, 2019 The latest miracle machine in modern medicine — whose use has skyrocketed in recent years — is saving people from the brink of death: adults whose lungs have been ravaged by the…
Many health care institutions have practices and policies which automatically suspend do-not-resuscitate (DNR) orders when patients go to the operating room. Read more about DNR during surgery.
By Ryan Warner, Colorado Matters Podcast. May 1, 2019 A Colorado physician talks about medical aid in dying in Colorado. As he notes, you must ask about aid in dying. It is almost universal in the states that allow it…
Opinion piece by Theresa Brown, hospice nurse. New York Times, April 27, 2019 A hospice nurses argues that lack of time is the main cause of over treatment at end of life. She suggests the development of end-of-life treatment guidelines…
David Wood, MD, the Chief Medical Officer at Beaumont Health, describes the challenging experience he faced as the surrogate decision maker for his father at the end of life. "It's a casacade." People kept saying "he'll get better." Video: 5.08…
by Joanne Faryon inewsource.org A report about the "vent farms" in Coronado, and the helpless people in it. In California, 4,000 men, women and children are being kept alive with machines in special wards in California’s nursing homes. "The default…
by MD Brad Stuart, Tracey Danaher, PhDb, Rana Awdish, MD, FCCPc, Leonard Berry, PhDd,e Mayo Clinic Proceedings XXX 2019, 1-9 This article examines how clinicians can help affected families find their way from “focused hope” (which centers on cure) to…
By Barbara Coombs Lee, February 11, 2019 When Blake Nordstrom, one of the fourth-generation of his family to lead the Nordstrom department store chain, died in January at age 58, the extended family of Nordstrom customers and associates were not…
This video features Dr. Stefanie Green, co-founder and current President of the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers (CAMAP). Stefanie is medical advisor to the BC Ministry of Health medical aid in dying oversight committee and moderator of CAMAP's…
BASICS: Make sure those who are involved in your care know your wishes. Document this in your Advance Directive. Appoint someone to speak for you who knows and agrees with your wishes — your Health Care Agent, who can speak…
By John Wilkens – Union Tribune - Jan. 6, 2019 Faye Girsh is interviewed on the occasion of her stepping down from the Presidency of the Hemlock Society of San Diego. She talks about her most important legacy, the Final…
President of the Hemlock Society, Barry Price, Ph.D., makes a good case for why the medical aid in dying law should be expanded.
Numerous studies have demonstrated that healthcare surrogates lack knowledge of patients’ preferences. Surrogates struggle with guilt, stress, and doubt when they make decisions without knowledge of their loved ones' wishes. Surrogates should be included in the process of advance care…
By Katie Hafner - New York Times. Aug. 10, 2018 "One in six hospital patients in the United States is now treated in a Catholic facility, according to the Catholic Health Association, a membership organization that includes 90 percent of…
By Joseph Pierre, Psychiatrist - in Aeon May 15, 2018 "Indeed, the American Veterinary Medical Association Guidelines for the Euthanasia of Animals (2013) acknowledges that ‘there is no consensus on when it is appropriate to let [a] life go’, but…
By Marissa Cabrera, Maureen Cavanaugh, KPBS June 6, 2017. Audio: 6 min 35 seconds Hemlock Society of San Diego founder Faye Girsh discusses why the California End of Life Option Act does not go far enough.
Fresh Air, NPR - Jan. 30, 2017 Terry Gross talks with author of "Modern Death" and fellow in cardiology at Duke University Medical Center, Dr. Haider Warraic, about how medicine has changed the end of life. He talks about the…
By Linda Van Zandt - Los Angeles Times Aug 14, 2016 "We had been forced to assist in the most bizarre fashion, jumping through seemingly random legal hoops and meeting arbitrary deadlines while my aunt suffered, and finally emptying capsules,…
KevinMd.com Feb. 8, 2016 Many doctors are reluctant to talk about end of life issues. Many families want to avoid the issue altogether and are shocked when the end "suddenly" appears. Read more about doctors' reluctance to talk about end…
An Economist film Emily is 24 years old, physically healthy and lives in Belgium, where euthanasia is legal, even for children.
Opinion Piece By Kristen McConnell, New York Times, August 26, 2015 A nurse explains dying in an intensive care unit and corrects the impression that being in ICU is a "pause." "When I first realized that in intensive care we…
In this 1973 award-winning French-Italian film with Marcello Mastroianni, four gourmet friends rent a chateau. If you ever thought about how it would be to eat yourself to death, this will amuse and entertain you.
by Deborah Brauser Medscape April 08, 2015 Rational suicide is discussed at the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) 2015 Annual Meeting. "Our main focus was on the fact that more and more individuals are expressing the wish to end…
Ezekiel J. Emanuel, The Atlantic, October 2014 "Americans may live longer than their parents, but they are likely to be more incapacitated. Does that sound very desirable? Not to me." Ezekiel J. Emanuel The compression of morbidity "...this theory postulates…
by Joanne Faryon - KPBS Morning Edition This page of video and audio gives you a glimpse of what it is like in California subacute units. One video talks with the wife a man who lived in nursing home for…
by Lindsey Fitzharris in Medium Kate Granger, a 31-year-old physician who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of sarcoma and given less than 5 years to live decided to forgo chemotherapy. She made her decision based on quality of life…
A discussion about doctor's views on end-of-life treatment, which turn out to be radically different than the general public's views. Most doctors do not want to die in a hospital. Most of the general public say they want to die peacefully without being in pain; but if you ask them if they would want CPR, artificial ventilation, dialysis, etc. they paradoxically say "yes."
by Faye Girsh, President Hemlock Society of San Diego Love him or hate him, Jack Kevorkian was the face of the right-to-die movement for almost a decade. As he forced people to confront the struggle of suffering people seeking a…
by Faye Girsh, Ed.D. If you’re thinking about ending your life maybe you are depressed. Depression is a treatable condition which often leads to thoughts of dying. If you have at least five of these symptoms occurring nearly every day…
By Erwin J. D. Kompanje - Translated from Dutch into English from the NNVE newsletter 'RELEVANT'. (Vol.30. Number 1.2004):- It is often suggested that terminal patients die sooner after having received a higher dose of morphine or terminal sedation…
Keynote speech to the 13th National Hemlock Conference 1/10/03 by John Shelby Spong, Eighth Episcopal Bishop of Newark I am both honored and delighted to speak to this national gathering of the Hemlock Society. It is a rare experience for…
by Bishop Shelby Spong I want them to remember me as a person who was vital to the end, as one who was in possession of all that makes me who I am, and as one who died well. My…
by Rodney Syme, MD What is a good death? Well, it is the antithesis of a bad death. In my view, a good death is not what Philip Aries described as a ' wild death', an unprepared death without peace,…
The Colombian Constitution provides a solid basis for decriminalizing merciful homicide, when a person who is undergoing intense suffering caused by an incurable illness, requests that it be put to an end, which implies causing death. I will briefly refer…
