Consistently, one of the top reasons patients request assisted suicide is fear of becoming a burden on their family, friends and caregivers (Oregon Health Data). A new study by a pair of Harvard Business School researchers finds that employers underestimate, to their detriment, the struggle their...
Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS) are increasingly being legalized and primarily involve patients with cancer. Oncologists who care for persons with advanced, terminal cancer and who practice in jurisdictions where PAS/physician aid in dying (PAS/PAD) is legal now face individual decisions whether to endorse...
An intensive care doctor ordered "significantly excessive and potentially fatal" doses of pain medicine for at least 27 near-death patients in the past few years after families asked that lifesaving measures be stopped, an Ohio hospital system announced after being sued by a family alleging an improper dose of...
Lars Larson speaks with Kristen Hanson, Community Relations Advocate for Patients Rights Action Fund, to share her and her husband’s story to advocate for better end-of-life care for terminal patients. His illness gave them firsthand insights into how assisted suicide endangers those who are most vulnerable. Click here...
The World Medical Association (WMA) was founded in 1947, in part to work for the highest possible standards of ethical behaviour and care among phy- sicians. This was considered particularly important after the gross ethical violations observed, by physicians themselves during the Second World War...
In our broken, profit-driven healthcare system, vulnerable people are at risk of deadly harm when insurers and providers put the bottom line above true patient care. According to Axios, 'Health care executives gave no indication to bankers and investors at this year's J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference...
A Nova Scotia Catholic congregation, thrust into a controversy about the right to die, is confident its policy will endure. The Sisters of St. Martha has an agreement with the Nova Scotia government, forbidding medical assistance in dying, at Saint Martha’s Hospital in Antigonish, N.S. “It is named in...
Palliative care is a type of care provided to patients with serious illness, such as cancer. This care can reduce symptoms, improve quality of life and may make it possible to continue with cancer treatment. The goal is to prevent or treat the symptoms of...
Two Quebecers suffering from incurable degenerative diseases are in court today challenging provincial and federal laws that have left them ineligible for medically assisted death. Jean Truchon and Nicole Gladu don’t qualify to have a physician end their lives because, despite their suffering, they are not at the end...
A year ago, I lost my 36-year-old husband to cancer. In the first few months after his death, I often felt lost without the heroic man I fell in love with 14 years earlier. But in our last few weeks together, I promised J.J. that...
They received the same diagnosis—and chose two very different paths J.J. Hanson—a loving husband, father, and Marine—was diagnosed in spring 2014 with grade 4 Glioblastoma Multiforme, the deadliest form of brain cancer. He was right in the prime of his life. This aggressive cancer was the same...
Hawaii's new medically assisted suicide law has gone into effect, but few doctors and pharmacies are willing to prescribe and dispense the life-ending medications. Hawaii Pacific Health and The Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu said their pharmacies will not fill the prescriptions and hospitalized patients will...
A central question raised by Yager et al1 is whether it is ethical for psychiatrists to be involved in competency assessments in the context of so-called “physician assisted death.” (We endorse, and herein employ, the terminology advocated by the American College of Physicians and the American...
Nova Scotia's only Catholic hospital is at risk of being found in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and human rights legislation by refusing to provide medical assistance in dying, a Halifax law professor says. St. Martha's Regional Hospital in Antigonish, N.S., is a...
In a recent Wicked Local Lexington commentary (“Medical aid in dying important for some with disabilities,” Sept. 28), Michael Martignetti argues for the legalization of assisted suicide from the perspective of someone with the progressive neurological disability, Friedrichs ataxia. I can relate to the author’s...
by Shane E. Macaulay, MD The American Medical Association, and the entire profession of medicine in the U.S., stand at a crucial ethical crossroads. For two years the AMA has been considering the question of physician-assisted suicide (PAS): shall physician assistance with patient suicide now be considered...
In his 29 years as chief executive officer of Hospice Maui, LaGoy said he has often heard incoming patients talk about wanting to end their lives early because they imagine all the suffering that lies ahead. But he said that two big things usually happen...
Impact on doctor/patient relationship It will surely involve major changes in the law, which could have serious consequences for the doctor/patient relationship. ‘First do no harm’, is frequently bandied about and whatever the origin, it is a maxim that means patients can hold us to the...
As more and more states consider passing assisted suicide policy, it is important for Americans to realize that this dangerous policy puts vulnerable lives, like mine and my children’s, at risk. In 2012, I was facing what appeared to be a hopeless situation. In spite of...
Kristen Hanson, Community Relations Advocate As 2019 comes to an end, and we begin to make plans for the year ahead, I am reminded that time is precious. Nearly two years ago, I lost my husband, JJ, to terminal brain cancer. Although we couldn’t save JJ’s life,...
A panel of experts is recommending the Quebec government expand access to medical aid in dying. In recommendations made public today, the group said people should be allowed to make advance directives requesting a doctor-assisted death, which is not allowed under current law. The panel suggests that to...
Several claims about assisted suicide that were made in an opinion piece published Nov. 21 were dangerous and inaccurate. The author of the piece, who belongs to a national organization pushing for the legalization of assisted suicide across the United States, claimed the practice was...
The RCGP is consulting members on its assisted suicide stance - currently, opposition. Their definition of 'assisted dying' does not mention terminal illness and could thus embrace doctors assisting the suicides of disabled, elderly and psychologically ill people. Can GPs really be 'neutral'? Watch the video here...
Only three countries approve of assisted suicide and euthanasia as a whole: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The first two even recognize requests from minors under strict circumstances, while Luxembourg excludes them from the legislation. Switzerland, Germany, Finland, and Austria allow assisted suicide under specific scenarios. Read...
Here are five things to know to help dispel some of the misunderstandings about hospice care. 1. Hospice isn't about 'giving up.' Hospice can extend your life. Hospice is often associated with ideas of giving up or surrendering to death. Statistics show otherwise. Studies published in 2007 by the...
There has been a flurry of discourse in the media regarding ways to make medically assisted death more accessible for Canadians, including reports on the Quebec ruling to overturn the criterion that one’s death must be “reasonably foreseeable” and the Alzheimer Society of Canada position...
The state’s medical aid in dying law "legalizes murder,” and no doctor in New Jersey should be required to do anything to help carry it out, including the routine act of releasing a patient’s file, an attorney for a devoutly religious physician and a pharmacist...