While the number of hospices and other organizations providing palliative care continues to expand nationwide, staffing shortages represent a barrier that threatens to slow this growth. The United States has 13.35 hospice and palliative care specialists for every 100,000 adults 65 and older, according to an April 2018 study. The research estimated that by 2040

  Battle lines are drawn with an even number of people who support and oppose the bill. Unlike in previous years, there’s a public, full-court press by the opposition. “Assisted suicide is dangerous public policy. When suicide becomes a medical treatment, it injects government pressure and profit-driven insurance decisions into everyone’s end-of-life care,” said Kristen

It has come to my attention that our Legislature will be soon voting on a bill (HB 1659) to make assisted suicide legal here in New Hampshire. As someone who has worked in the mental health field for decades, I am gravely concerned about this. In my career, I have personally witnessed many people with

As Maryland lawmakers prepare to hold public hearings on whether the state should join nine others that allow terminally-ill patients to choose physician-assisted suicide, it begs a serious question with no easy answer: Is suicide wrong? Granted, the question of the humanity of physician-assisted suicide is a complicated one. For those who have completed Applied

  A health policy expert is warning that Canada is moving too fast on changes to legislation that would expand eligibility for medically assisted death. Dr. Harvey Schipper, a professor of medicine and an adjunct professor of law at the University of Toronto, urges caution, saying calls to extend euthanasia access to mature minors and people

Nine states have already legalized physician-assisted suicide, (PAS) and New York may be next in line, Fordham University professor of theological bioethics Charles Camosy told Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Tuesday. Camosy told host Tucker Carlson that the most common reason patients in Oregon, where assisted suicide has been legal since 1997, request access to PAS is not due to “physical

  The Maryland Legislature is expected to again consider an assisted suicide bill in its new session. Once again, disability activists will be a prominent part of the coalition to oppose the bill as a discriminatory overlay to a beleaguered and inequitable health care system. The assisted suicide bill, authorizes health care providers to write

By Mary D. Lopez Lopez is the executive director at Independence Empowerment Center in Manassas. From 1997-2010, Lopez also served on the Board of Not Dead Yet, an advocacy group that opposes legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia. Last year Virginia lawmakers introduced assisted suicide legislation for the first time. Thankfully, that lethal bill never

  As is common among proponents of assisted suicide, Cheri Bach’s Jan. 7 opinion piece bills state-sanctioned killing as a dignified end of life “choice.” What Bach says about individuals’ desire for increased autonomy and control is true. However, for many where assisted suicide is legal, it is not a true choice and takes away

House Bill 1659 effectively gives physicians permission to prescribe drugs that result in patient suicide. We have serious concerns about the potential impact on New Hampshire’s at-risk population if this bill passes. It normalizes suicide as medical care and corrupts the doctor/patient relationship. New Hampshire suicide rates are up nearly 50% over the past 10

Doctors, nurses and other medical professionals are urging state lawmakers to oppose the [assisted suicide law] this session, and instead, promote palliative care and hospice care for terminal patients. Both the Medical Society of the State of New York and the American Medical Association oppose “physician-assisted suicide.” …Kristen Hanson, a community relations advocate for the

  With the newly elected Virginia state legislature taking power in 2020, the debate over assisted suicide has returned to the General Assembly with a name change to disguise the real meaning. The bill [Health Care Decision Making, HB 1649] introduced by Del. Kaye Kory, D–Fairfax, also intends to expand assisted suicide authority to nurse

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