Thứ Tư, 30 tháng 1, 2013

Minnesota 's Four Pending End-of-Life Cases

There are now four end-of-life cases pending in the Minnesota Courts.1.  Can a guardian consent to withholding or withdrawing life-sustaining treatment?  In re Tschumy, No. 27-GC-PR-07-496 (Hennepin Cty. Dist. Ct. Oct. 18, 2012) (ruling guardian lacks authority to consent), on appeal No. A12-2179 (Minn. filed Oct. 2012) (now briefing threshold jurisdiction question).  2.  Is the prohibition of "encouraging" suicide unconstitutional under the 1st Amendment?  State v. Melchert-Dinkel, No. No. 66-CR-10-1193 (Rice Cty. Dist....

Commission on Law and Aging Publications Moving Sale

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Thứ Ba, 29 tháng 1, 2013

World Federation Right to Die Conference

TheWorld Federation Right to Die conference is tentativelyscheduled for September 16-22in Chicago, Illinois (USA).  The theme is “Dignity, Control,Choice – Around the World.”&nb...

Do No Harm Project

Clinicians at the University of Colorado havepioneered a new initiative called the "Do No Harm Project."  Their goal is to emphasize trainee scholarship thathighlights the wisdom of Bernard Lown’s credo: "do as much as possible for the patient and as little as possible to the patient."The project website explains:Harms from over-testing,over-diagnosis, and over-treatment are a serious threat to the health of ourpatients and the long-term solvency of our health care system. Harms of overusehave not traditionally been taught...

Ariel Sharon - Significant Brain Activity Detected after 7 Years in Vegetative State

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been in a persistent vegetative state since suffering a massive stroke in 2006.  But now doctors say they have observed "significant brain activity" in Sharon.  (CNN)  They are basing this on the results of experiments done with functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, showing that Sharon's brain behaves differently when he is presented with familiar sounds and pictures than with unfamiliar stimuli.  Of course, it is totally unclear what any of this means for Sharon's...

Thứ Hai, 28 tháng 1, 2013

2nd National Nursing Ethics Conference

The 2nd National Nursing Ethics Conference will be held in Los Angeles on March 21 and 22. This conference is designed to engage front line providers in reflecting on the ethical issues encountered in daily practice. This year's conference is titled "Cultivating Ethical Awareness: Moments of Truth." Some participants at the first conference said this was the best conference they had ever attended--in nursing or bioethi...

Thứ Sáu, 25 tháng 1, 2013

Sunnybrook v. Dennis Daye - Sunnybrook Uses CCB

A few months ago, I recounted several recent cases in which Sunnybrook clinicians attempted to resolve medical futility disputes through mechanisms other than the Ontario CCB.  But, yesterday, Robert Cribb (who has been covering these issues in a long series of columns for the Toronto Star) reported that Sunnybrook physician Robert Fowler is using the CCB process to argue that Dennis Daye's wife is not making treatment decisions in his best...

Death & Dying in the 21st Century - Podcast

This Sunday, Indiana University's radio show "Sound Medicine” will explore the way we die, what it means to have a living will, and how hospice programs can help.  Host Anne Ryder speaks with expert physicians and nurses to explore how death and dying have changed in the past decades and how advances in medical technology have redefined our last moments.Ken Murray, M.D., a retired family medicine physician and author of "How Doctors Die," discusses his essay and personal experiences with death. Murray also discusses end-of-life decisions and...

Thứ Hai, 21 tháng 1, 2013

Louisiana Cutting Hospice Coverage

On December 14, 2012, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals announced elimination of Medicaid hospice care through June 30, 2014. The cuts go into effect February 1, 2013.  I wonder how the state economists figured this would save the state money.  Those Medicaid patients are still going to die.  But now they will die at the hospital at a reimbursement rate surely higher than hospice.                       &nb...

Thứ Bảy, 19 tháng 1, 2013

Free Career Panel on Bioethics & the Law

The American Bar Association Special Committee on Bioethics and the Law is presenting a Free Career Panel on Bioethics and the Law  "Careers and Opportunities in Bioethics and the Law" on Wednesday, January 30, 2013, from 2:30 to 4:00 p.m., at the American Bar Foundation, 750 North Lake Shore Drive, Fourth Floor.The nexus of bioethics and the law continues to grow and evolve, it involves a continuous and ever changing study of emerging issues, such as genetic testing, access to medical care in public health crises, cloning,...

Thứ Sáu, 18 tháng 1, 2013

Minnesota Care of the Aging Conference

On February 25, 2013 in downtown Minneapolis, MinnCLE is hosting the Care of the Aging Conference.  Sessions include:The Latest Practices and Strategies for Management of Extreme Symptoms Near End of Life: Palliative Sedation and AlternativesOverview of Powers and Duties of Third-Party Decision-Makers: “Who You Gonna Call?”Inside the Office of Health Facility Complaints: Why Won’t They Just Go Away and Leave Us Alone?Families vs. Privacy: To Tell or Not to Tell – We Have the Answers!Nursing Home Admission and Discharge Disputes: Law and LitigationThe...

Proceedings of 2011 Third National Guardianship Summit

The National Guardianship Network has posted the proceedings of the 2011 Third National Guardianship Summit.  All the background papers commissioned for the Summit as well as the official Summit Standards and Recommendations are available here.  Here is the table of contents for the special issue of the Utah Law Review.PREFACE: THIRD NATIONAL GUARDIANSHIP SUMMIT: STANDARDS OF EXCELLENCELeslie P. Francis INTRODUCTIONSally Hurme, Erica Wood THIRD NATIONAL GUARDIANSHIP SUMMIT STANDARDS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Guardianship Summit A CALL FOR...

Thứ Năm, 17 tháng 1, 2013

IOM Committee on Transforming End-of-Life Care

The Institute of Medicine's new Committee on Transforming End-of-Life Care is holding its first meeting on February 20 and 21, 2013, at the National Academy of Sciences building located at 2101 Constitution Avenue N.W., in Washington, D.C. There will be a public session from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on February 20. The agenda will feature discussion of the committee’s scope of work and previous Institute of Medicine reports that addressed end-of-life care. There will also be an opportunity for public comments on issues that the...

Thứ Ba, 15 tháng 1, 2013

2013 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Awards

The Hasting Center hasannounced the 2013 winners of the Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon PhysicianAwards.  The purpose of these five prizes (one to a senior physician, oneto a mid-career physician, and three to early-career physicians) is to fosterthose skills and virtues by providing financial prizes to those physicians who have shown their care of patients to be exemplary, a modelof good medicine for other physicians, and a great benefit in advancing the centralityof end-of-life care as a basic part of the doctor-patient relationship.Here is...

Thứ Hai, 14 tháng 1, 2013

Third Cambridge Consortium for Bioethics Education

The Third Cambridge Consortium for Bioethics Education will be held from June 19 to 21, in Paris.  Registration is available here.In April 2010, Cambridge University Press held the first Cambridge Consortium for Bioethics Education in New York. Leaders in the field were invited to initiate a shared dialogue addressing such questions as: Why are we doing this? What goals are we trying to achieve? Where is bioethics education taking...

Thứ Sáu, 11 tháng 1, 2013

The Suicide Shop

Late last year, the 2012 French animated film, "The Suicide Shop," was circulating among film festivals in Canada and elsewhere.  Hopefully, it will soon be generally available.In a grey and brown Paris of oppressive concrete towers and rain-soaked streets, everyone, even the pigeons, is miserable. The one paradoxical ray of hope is a quaint little old-fashioned back-alley boutique known as The Suicide Shop, where the Tuvache family are delighted to help customers end their suffering.  The shop sells poisons, nooses, rusty razor blades,...

Thứ Năm, 10 tháng 1, 2013

Zfat v. Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital - Orthodox Jews Ask Court to Order Hospital to Continue Life Support

About a year ago, 19-year-old daughter, Danielle Zfat was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  On Nov. 25th she was admitted to Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital in Florida.  On Jan. 1st her condition worsened and she was placed on life support. As of January 3, 2013, the physicians at the hospital indicated that they would be removing all medical systems which supported Danielle's life.  But Danielle and her family are Orthodox Jews who believe they cannot withdraw life sustaining devices once they are in place. Danielle's mother...

Thứ Tư, 9 tháng 1, 2013

Son's Perspective on Using VSED to Hasten Death

The following is an essay by Marc Newhouse on his mother's use of VSED.  Marc Newhouse is a former cellist, nurse, and English teacher.  He is now a book author who blogs at Life, Death and Iguanas.In April of 2010, my mother made a hard, but unquestionablygood decision.She was 89, frail, almost blind, and thought she might haveAlzheimer’s.The idea of a slow, relentless deterioration—especially in anursing home—was intolerable to her. A fine poet, she had combined wit withreason all of her life. She had also supported...

Thứ Ba, 8 tháng 1, 2013

Legal Briefing: POLST: Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment

With Melinda Hexum, I just published "Legal Briefing: POLST: Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment." in The Journal of Clinical Ethics 23, no. 4 (Winter 2012): 353-76.  Here is the abstract:This issue’s “Legal Briefing” column covers recent legal developments involving POLST (physician orders for life-sustaining treatment.)  POLST has been the subject of recent articles in JCE. It has been the subject of major policy reports and a recent New York Times editorial.  And POLST has been the subject of significant legislative,...

Thứ Hai, 7 tháng 1, 2013

2013 ASBH Call for Proposals

The 2013 ASBH Call for Proposals is now open.  The 2013 ASBH conference will be held in Atlanta, Georgia.  Details regarding the call can be found on the ASBH homepage. There you will find a link to the abstract submission site as well as a PDF containing the submission guidelines, including instructions for the Student Paper Competition. ASBH is accepting abstracts until 4:00 pm (CST), March 4, 2013.  The theme for the 2013 ASBH meeting, "Tradition, Innovation and Moral Courage," encourages participants to respond to the ways bioethics...

Thứ Năm, 3 tháng 1, 2013

Phillip Seaton Loses Case against Physician who Amputated Penis without Consent

The Kentucky Court of Appeals just issued its opinion in Seaton v. Patterson.  Seaton had sued Patterson for battery, claiming that the physician amputated his penis without consent.  Seaton claimed he consented only to a circumcision.  But a jury determined that Dr. Patterson had Seaton's consent.  The appellate court found no error in the trial proceedings.  I am following this type of medical battery case to round out the authority in my forthcoming article:  "Clinicians May Not Administer Life-Sustaining Treatment...

Thứ Tư, 2 tháng 1, 2013

Does the Concept of 'Medical Futility' Help Clinicians?

On Tuesday, Feb 5, from noon to 1:00 PM, Children’s Mercy Bioethics Center is hosting a webinar on the topic:  "Does the Concept of 'Medical Futility' Help Clinicians?"Speakers:Robert D. Truog, MD, Professor of Medical Ethics, Anaesthesiology & Pediatrics at Harvard Medical SchoolRobert L. Fine, MD, Clinical Director, Office of Clinical Ethics and Palliative Care, Baylor Health Care SystemThaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD Director of the Health Law Institute and an Associate Professor of Law at Hamline...

Prevention vs. Treatment - Book of the Year

Abook to which I  contributed chapter 10, "The Slow Transition of U.S. Law Toward a Greater Emphasis on Prevention," was just named as one of Washington Post Wonkblog's "Books ofthe Year."  The book is Prevention vs.Treatment: What’s the Right Balance? By (Halley Faust and PaulMenzel  eds., OxfordUniversity Press, Oct. 2011).Sarah Kliff writes:  "I spent a good part of this year writing a three-part...

Thứ Ba, 1 tháng 1, 2013

Poker Alice - Early Case of Overtreatment at Patient's Demand

Alice Ivers Duffield Tubbs Huckert (1851–1930), better known as "Poker Alice," was a famous poker player who talked her doctors into performing what they though was non-indicated surgery.Poker Alice fit right in with the whiskey-swilling, cigar-smoking men who frequented the poker tables of the Old West.  She soon started swearing like the men, drinking tumbler after tumbler of whiskey and even adopted her trademark habit of continual cigar...