Dozens of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals from across the state are at the State Capitol today to make the medical case against legalizing physician-assisted suicide. “Today we will meet with our elected representatives to explain the adverse impacts that a policy of doctor-assisted suicide would have on our patients, and on the medical

  Opponents of assisted suicide held a press conference Wednesday to reject legislation allowing patients with terminal conditions to request a life-ending substance from a physician… “Suicide is incredibly sad,” said Dr. Mary Lopez during the press event held at the Pocahontas Building. “As a nation, we do not want to see our people killing

  The real reasons that people want to commit assisted suicide, proponents admit, are about being dependent on other people for personal care. We disability rights activists have been pointing this out all along. Barbara Coombs Lee, who as an insurance company executive wrote Oregon’s assisted suicide law, brought up the case of the woman

  As a palliative care physician helping patients and families face the end of life on a daily basis, I know that physician-assisted suicide will not help the majority who are fighting against all odds, to live “as well as they can for as long as they can.” …Much of the public is fearful of

Due to ongoing confusion amongst the general public regarding Hospice Palliative Care (HPC) and Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association (CHPCA) and the Canadian Society of Palliative Care Physicians (CSPCP) would like to clarify the relationship of hospice palliative care and MAiD. Healthcare articles and the general media continue to

  In an unprecedented case, three Belgian doctors are going on trial in Ghent accused of unlawfully poisoning a patient whose life they helped to end. Tine Nys, 38, died surrounded by her family on 27 April 2010. Her sisters argue that her death should never have been allowed under Belgium’s euthanasia law, and that

  An advocacy group pushing to legalize medically-assisted suicide in Massachusetts said Monday that it will appeal a recent court decision, which said patients do not have a right to end their lives with the help of their doctors… Second Thoughts Massachusetts, a group that opposes medical aid in dying, praised the judge’s decision. That

  Kligler, a retired internist who has terminal prostate cancer, and Steinbach, who treats terminally ill patients, are plaintiffs in the case filed in 2016 against state Attorney General Maura Healey and Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe. They sought to have Suffolk Superior Court in Boston declare that physician-assisted suicide is not manslaughter.

  A rising number of Medicare Advantage plans are offering home-based palliative care as a supplemental benefit. This year, 61 plans offer a palliative care benefit compared to 15 during 2019, a new Duke University report indicates. Hospices provide about 50% of home-based palliative care in the United States according to the Center to Advance

  A recent study published in JAMA showed that palliative care services at hospitals was associated with a 10% reduction in ICU use for patients who died during hospitalization.  The researchers noted that over half of the hospitals sampled in the study reported that they never had a palliative care program.  Ask your state legislator

There will be a renewed push to legalize physician-assisted suicide (PAS) in New York State in 2020. Some think of this as a debate between religious and secular activists, the former in favor of traditional morals and rules and the latter in favor of individual freedom and autonomy. But the debate is actually much more

Photo Credit: Not Dead Yet Massachusetts   Compassionate medical care and end of life considerations are some of the most complex and difficult issues facing families, and society in general. It is a reality that may only intensify against a backdrop of an aging population. In the United States, the number of older individuals outpaces

  Bob Charland has a passion for building bikes. He just doesn’t know how much longer he can do it. “I want to help people,” said Bob. “I want to know that my time here meant something and that I was able to make a difference in this world.” Bob used to work as an

  Lewis Cohen argues for passage of the End of Life Option Act which has been defeated in the Maryland General Assembly for the past five years, but actually illustrates one of the many dangers of this terrible bill (“Deathly ill Marylanders should have a choice on how and when they die,”Dec. 4). Every year,

  Legalization of physician-prescribed lethal medication for terminal patients, even on request, is bad medicine. This is eliminating the sufferer, not the suffering. It is both unnecessary and dangerous. Twenty years’ experience in Oregon shows that “Inadequate pain control or concern about it” is a distant sixth most-cited reason for patients to choose lethal medication,

  Doctors make educated guesses about how long a person has left to live after a terminal diagnosis, but no one should take a healthcare provider’s estimate of how many weeks or months someone has left to live as gospel truth. Patients routinely survive long after the day they’re expected to succumb to their illness.

  While impeachment divided the House of Representatives along party lines, a group of lawmakers is rallying around a bipartisan resolution condemning assisted suicide as Congress heads into winter recess. Reps. Brad Wenstrup (R., Ohio) and Lou Correa (D., Calif.) introduced a resolution last week declaring that medically assisted suicide “puts everyone, including those most vulnerable, at risk of

  On July 7, 2018, Chris Dunn survived a freak diving accident that left him paralyzed, on a ventilator and mostly blind only to face an even more hellish reality: a year living in a Maine ICU fighting for his right to go to rehab and get back to living his life. Other than a