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"…
Opponents of assisted dying often use as an argument that assisted dying is not necessary because good quality palliative care can alleviate suffering at end of life. This report from England concludes that 17 people a day suffer at the…
by Jim Demaine, Md, KevinMD.com, July 7, 2019 A call came about noon a few years ago that a patient I’ll call Stella was being admitted once again. She had come into the ER from her nursing home to receive…
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.…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
By Atul Gawande - The New Yorker - Aug. 20, 2010 "Our medical system is excellent at trying to stave off death with eight-thousand-dollar-a-month chemotherapy, three-thousand-dollar-a-day intensive care, five-thousand-dollar-an-hour surgery. But, ultimately, death comes, and no one is good at…
By Katy Butler, New York Times Magazine, June 18, 2010 This article was an influential article and prompted two excellent books by Katy Butler, Knocking on Heaven's Door: The Path to a Better Way of Death, 2013 and The Art…
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,…