Top 10 Legal Issues in Bioethics - ASBH Annual Meeting

The 14th annual meeting of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities is coming up in a few weeks in Washington, DC.  I hope that you will join Art Derse, Alicia Ouellette, Amy Campbell and me for the fourth annual Legal Update 2012:  Top 10 Legal Issues in Bioethics.  This is session 105 on Thursday, October 18 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m.  I have posted materials from prior "Legal Update" panel sessions here.  If you are interested in legal bioethics, please also join us at the Law affinity group meeting on Friday,...

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Legal, Medical, & Ethical Issues in Minnesota End-of-Life Care

Join us on November 8-9, in Saint Paul for this Symposium to discuss Legal, Medical, and Ethical Issues in Minnesota End-of-Life Ca...

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Video - Two Physician-Patient Conversations about End-of-Life Decisions

Here are two five minute video clips from PBS:At Intermountain Medical Center Dr. Sam Brown, the supervisor at the medical ICU, meets with Paul Keith, who has terminal cancer. The cancer, which has spread to Mr. Keith’s throat, prevents him from speaking, but he communicates with his wife and doctors by writing his wishes. He is extremely articulate and clear about his prognosis as well as his desire for palliative interventions only as he bravely faces his imminent death. This poignant conversation about his medical decision-making process with...

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Baby Carner - A Baby "M" in Houston

On the heels of the Baby "M" case in Alberta is this sadly similar case from Houston.  Jessica Marie Carner and Jarroin Louis Carner were both arrested and charged with felony injury to a child with serious bodily injury after their infant son suffered head trauma so severe, he remains in a vegetative state.Doctors discovered the baby boy suffered subdural hematomas, an extra axial hemorrhage and an anoxic brain injury which resulted...

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Share Your Story of Unwanted or Unnecessary Medical Treatment.

Compassion & Choices invites you to submit your story about situations involving unwanted or unnecessary medical treatment. &nb...

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Residents' Rights Month

Residents' Rights Month is an annual event designated by the Consumer Voice and is celebrated in October to honor residents living in all long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, sub-acute units, assisted living, board and care and retirement communities.Residents’ Rights Month is a time for celebration and recognition offering an opportunity for every facility to focus on and celebrate awareness of dignity, respect and the value of each individual resident. The theme for Residents' Rights Month 2012 is, "My Voice, My Vote, My Right"...

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Legal Standards Become Medical Standards of Care

In Osborn v. Irwin Memorial Blood Bank, the California Court of Appeal confirmed that "professional prudence is defined by actual or accepted practice within a profession, rather than theories about what 'should' have been done."In the medical futility context, this is a problem.  While clinicians judge that continued life-sustaining interventions are inappropriate, they continue them.  Since, legally speaking, actions speak louder than words, clinicians are creating the very standard of care that they do not want to comply with.In this...

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Baby M - Treatment Case Ends, Criminal Case Begins

Litigation over Baby "M's" treatment is over.  The criminal case against her parents will continue.Medical Background.  Baby “M” suffered cardiac arrest and as a result was hospitalized in a “persistent vegetative state,” completely dependent on a mechanical ventilator and feeding tube for her survival.Procedural History.  On Wednesday, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled that an earlier court decision permitting clinicians to take Baby...

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Suggested Members for IOM Committee on Transforming End-of-Life Care

The Institute of Medicine is searching for experts in the scientific, technical, and medical professions to be considered for a study committee titled “Committee on Transforming End-of-Life Care.”  Nominations are due Monday, September 24, 2012.  (Hint:  I would love to be nominated to participate with this.)  The overall objective of the project is to advance policies to improve the care that individuals and families receive at the end of life through alignment with individual values and preferences and to stimulate a national...

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Baby M - Appeals Court Affirms Ruling Allowing Removal of Life Support over Parents' Objections

On Friday, the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench agreed with doctors that it is in 2 1/2 year-old Baby M's best interest to be removed from machines keeping her alive and to be provided with palliative care.  That conclusion, based on a best interest analysis, was unaffected by the wishes of Baby M's parents or their Muslim beliefs.  The conclusion was only reinforced by the fact that the parents are charged with inflicting the very injuries that caused Baby M's vegetative state, indicating that their decisions on Baby M's behalf are probably...

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NEW Mary J. Labyak Institute for Innovation

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) has created the Mary J. Labyak Institute for Innovation.  The Institute, which is named after the late hospice pioneer, Mary J. Labyak, is designed to continue her legacy of listening, learning and innovating.  The Institute is a part of the National Center for Care at the End of Life which also houses NHPCO and three affiliate organizations.The Institute will develop and promote...

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Talking about death brings end-of-life benefits (NBC News)

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the econ...

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End-of-Life Care after Terri Schiavo - Conference

ThisFriday, September 21, 2012, Stetson Law School is hosting a conference, atits downtown Tampa building, titled "End-of-Life Care after TerriSchiavo."Theconference includes perspectives from four, nationally-known speakers: (1) anattorney involved in the Terri Schiavo case, (2) an award-winning novelist, (3) apalliative care director at a leading hospital, and (4) a physician whose system forpredicting the survivability of near-drowning...

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Seven Months to National Healthcare Decisions Day 2013

Today marks seven months to National Healthcare Decisions Day, April 16, 2013.  Resources remain available at www.nhdd....

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Surrogate Decision Making in the Internet Age

The just-released October 2012 issue (12[10]) of the American Journal of Bioethics includes a target article and peer commentaries on surrogate decision making in the internet age.  I participated in this debate.  Here is the table of contents for this part of the issue:  Surrogate Decision Making in the Internet AgeJessica Bergpages 28-33Surrogate Decision Making 2.0: Digital Evidence as Clinical TestimonyLance Wahlertpages 34-36A Disability Response to Surrogate Decision Making in the Internet AgeTeresa Blankmeyer Burkepages 36-37The...

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Alberta Court Orders Baby M's Life-Sustaining Treatment Stopped over Her Muslim Parents' Objections

Madam Justice J.M. Ross of Queens Bench Alberta has issued a 15-page decision in the Baby M case.  I have posted a copy here.  Summarizing the dispute, Justice Ross observed that the parents' position is that "as devout Muslims and loving parents, they find it 'unthinkable to agree to limit or withdraw medical treatment' and they ask that the court honour [their] beliefs."But the court refused to honor the parents' beliefs, explaining that...

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Karen Okada - POA Contradicts Advance Directive

Karen Okada has been a patient at Hawaii's Queen's Medical Center since August 8, 2012.  Clinicians diagnosed her as being in a persistent vegetative state.  She has a 1998 advance directive stating that she does not want her dying "artificially prolonged."  But she also has a separate POA appointing her brother, and the brother does not want Karen's feeding tube removed.  The hospital petitioned Circuit Judge Patrick Border to order Karen's feeding tube removed in accordance with Karen's advance directive.  (Star Advertiser)The...

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Baby M - Futility, Surrogate Religion, and COI

In many current and recent conflicts over the appropriateness of continuing life-sustaining medical treatment, the family's demand for continued treatment, contrary to clinician recommendations,t is grounded in Muslim religious beliefs.  That is also true in the "Baby M" case at Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton.  But it sure seems like the Baby M case should be easier to resolve.  Since the parents are charged with inflicting the injuries that caused Baby M to be in a vegetative state, they are probably not (as I have argued...

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Childless and Aging: Designate an Agent or Risk Being Unbefriended

The New York Times highlights a growing concern, the childless and aging.  More people in the United States remain childless. In 2010, according to census data, nearly 19 percent of women age 40 to 44 had not given birth, compared with around 10 percent in 1980.  That is why it is important for people without children to set up a health care proxy that will enable someone to handle medical decisions and a power of attorney for someone to handle finances.  Those without available family risk becoming "unbefriended"...

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Another Lawsuit over Unilateral DNAR Orders

I have blogged about several lawsuits (for example the David Tracey Case) by British patients against NHS hospitals in which clinicians placed a DNAR order in a patient's chart without consent.  Today's Guardian reports yet another one.The unnamed family of patient "AWA" is bringing a legal challenge against a hospital in Kent where a doctor apparently decided staff should make no attempt to resuscitate the patient if he suffered cardiac or respiratory arrest, on the basis of his disability.  Lawyers for the family said a form added to...

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End-of-Life Care Is Improving (7min Video)

Here is a 7-minute video summarizing current challenges regarding end-of-life medical ca...

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New IOM Committee on Transforming End-of-Life Care

During the last century and more, death has evolved from a common family event centered in the home to a medical event occurring in a distant medical facility overseen by trained experts and administrators. Coordinated, expert, compassionate care for people dying from chronic diseases continues to challenge the American health care system. The development of hospice was an early innovative response to these challenges, and a broader focus on palliative...

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American Health Lawyers Association Offers New ADR Training Opportunities

The American Health Lawyers Association is coming to Minnesota to offer a new and innovative training program. And AHLA is offering this program in partnership with Hamline University School of Law, a national leader in dispute resolution and health law. The arbitration and mediation training courses begin on October 19, 2012 at the Hamline University Executive Training Center. Both courses are multi-day and highly interactive. Learn how to acquire the knowledge and skills to arbitrate or mediate a health law dispute effectively and ethically...

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Lawyer Kills Father with Forged Advance Directive

Yesterday, a grand jury indictment in Kansas City was unsealed.  It alleges that Susan Elizabeth “Liz” Van Note, a Kansas estate planning attorney, forged her father’s name to an advance directive.In 2010, William Van Note was shot and stabbed in his home.  Liz soon showed up at the hospital in Boonville, Missouri with an advance directive stating that her father did not want prolonged treatment to keep him alive.  Accordingly,...

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The Least Bad Death: Who Decides?

Boston University's ninth annual Pike lecture will feature keynote speaker Marcia Angell, MD, senior lecturer in global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School, and editor-in-chief, emerita, New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Angell will discuss the initiative petition on the November 2012 ballot (question two), which would legalize physician-prescribed end-of-life drugs for terminally ill patients with a prognosis of six months...

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Cultural Perspectives on the End of Life (Exhibit)

The Salem Multicultural Institute just opened an End of Life exhibit in its World Beat Gallery.  It focuses on the process of dying from a cultural perspective. The three cultures highlighted are Hispanic, Russian Old Believer and Micronesi...

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Symposium: Freedom of Choice at the End of Life Patient’s Rights in a Shifting Legal Landscape

I will be speaking at this symposium in New York City, in November.Symposium: Freedom of Choice at the End of LifePatient’s Rights in a Shifting Legal LandscapeA Justice Action Center SymposiumFriday, November 16, 2012New York Law SchoolCosponsored with the New York Law School Law Review and the Diane Abbey Law Center for Children and FamiliesAdditional support provided by the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging; the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys; the Elder Law Section of the New York State Bar Association;...

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Medical Futility Blog - 300,000 Pageviews

I see that the blog odometer is rolling past 300,000 pageviews today.  And that probably under-represents the reach and readership.  Among other things, the full content of this blog has been republished on both Medpedia and WellSphe...

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New York State Bar Promoting Advance Directives

A series of New York State Bar Association radio announcements on on the importance of designating a health care agent hit airwaves across upstate New York this week.  State Bar Association President Seymour W. James, Jr. (The Legal Aid Society in New York City) narrates the spots that inform the public about the free, valuable information available on the Association's website.  Each topic is recorded in 30-second (MP3) and 60-second versions (MP3). The radio spots will air from September 3 through 30.Here is the...

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Medical Miracles and End-of-Life Treatment Conflict

Kate Scannell has another great Bay-Area op-ed titled "Grappling with the Miracles of Modern Medicine."  She describes a patient of hers who woke up after all had considered him dead.  She then juxtaposes this case with the new study in the Journal of Medical Ethics in which British researchers asked whether doctors -- against their professional judgment -- should be obligated to provide intensive medical care to terminally ill children when parents demanded it, based on their religious beliefs in divine intervention or miraculous...

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