Tales from the Organ Trade - HBO Documentary

Here is a fascinating new HBO documentary:  Tales from the Organ Trade.  Every 60 minutes a human organ is sold illicitly.  Can you put yourself in the place of a buyer?  A seller? What would you do if your life depended on it?  This riveting, gritty, and unflinching film explores the shadowy life and death world of international black market organ trafficking, delving deeply into the legal, and ethical issues that swirl around its center, its fringes, and its darkest dept...

Read More

Aintree Hospital v. James - UK Supreme Court Holds Stopping Life Support in Patient's Best Interest

Today, the UK Supreme Court ruled that doctors should be allowed to withhold life-sustaining treatment where it would be “futile” to continue it.  Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v David James and Ors [2013] UKSC 67.  A copy of the opinion is available here. BACKGROUNDAs I wrote in December, musician David James suffered complications from cancer.  He was given six minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in August 2012 after a heart attack and ended up in a minimally conscious state,...

Read More

Last Right: Assisted Suicide in Canada

Yesterday, CBC began a new documentary series on assisted suici...

Read More

Futility in the ICU: Prevention, Procedure, and Policy

If you are at CHEST 2013, I hope to see you at "Futility in the ICU: Prevention, Procedure, and Policy" on Wednesday, October 30, 2013, from 7:30 AM - 9:00 AM in W178b McCormick Place.  Here is a link to the schedule for session 10232.Ethical Principles at Stake in Futility Disputes -- Gabriel BossletFutility Legislation: Lessons From Texas -- Richard CastriottaMedicolegal Aspects to Futility in the ICU -- Thaddeus PopePrevention...

Read More

Consent to Withdrawal of Life Support: What the Supreme Court Said in Cuthbertson v Rasouli

Mark Handelman, an expert on the CCB, and a partner at the Toronto based law firm Whaley Estate Litigation, has just posted a 30-page analysis of the SCC decision:  "Consent to Withdrawal of Life Support: What the Supreme Court Said in Cuthbertson v Rasoul...

Read More

William Buckley on Dying & Death

"The greatest enemy of older people is young doctors. . . .  They are determined to keep you alive, irrespective if you want to be. There isn't a living will written in language so commandeering that you can deny them of their resource...

Read More

10- Year Anniversary of Florida Intervention in Schiavo Case

Tomorrow is the 10th anniversary of Florida's intervention in the Schiavo case.  (HT: ABA Journal)In 1998, after eight years watching his wife Terri in a persistent vegetative state, Michael Schiavo petitioned a Florida court to remove her feeding tubes.  But Terri's parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, objected, starting a battle that endured for more than a decade.Under a court order to do so, doctors first removed Schiavo’s feeding tubes...

Read More

In re Tschumy - Who Guards the Guardians? Courts or Ethics Committees?

This summer, Minnesota joined a handful of other states that have given healthcare ethics committees "gatekeeping" power that was previously exercised by state government officials.  This week, the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed to hear a case challenging that rule.  In 2012, a Minnesota probate court held that court-appointed guardians do not have the authority to consent to the withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment unless...

Read More

Lights, Coma, Action!

Cavin Balaster has started a new kickstarter campaign entitled Lights, Coma, Action! This campaign is aimed to help Cavin not only write a book about his life before and after a major coma but also to help him create awareness for anyone who is going through a similar experience....

Read More

Cuthbertson v. Rasouli - Decision from Supreme Court of Canada

Here is the 94-page decision from the Supreme Court of Canada in Cuthbertson v. Rasouli.  (I have been at a conference all day and am just now starting to read the decision at the airport.  Analysis and commentary to follow soon.) &nb...

Read More

Pope on Medical Futility

Starting tomorrow, I will be speaking and writing about medical futility quite a lot over the next few weeks.Tomorrow, I am at a Dispute Resolution and Healthcare conference at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.Next week, I am participating in two sessions covering medical futility at the American Society of Bioethics & Humanities (ASBH) in Atlanta, Georgia. Also this month, I am presenting on the Futility in the ICU: Prevention, Procedure, and Policy at the American College of Chest Physicians in Chicago, Illinois.In November,...

Read More

Cuthbertson v. Rasouli - Welcome Appellate Court Guidance

Tomorrow, the Supreme Court of Canada will issue its decision in Cuthbertson v. Rasouli.  I will be commenting on the decision over the next few weeks.  But apart from the merits of the medical futility dispute, I want to commend the court for even taking and deciding the case.Too often, appellate courts have been ducking their duties to decide these sorts of disputes on grounds of mootness.  For example, recall the U.S. case of Betancourt...

Read More

Amanda Bennett - The Cost of Hope

The Cost of Hope (Random Hou...

Read More

Ethics & Health Policy of Dialyzing a Patient in a Persistent Vegetative State

In a new article in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, the authors discuss how continued dialysis violates ethical and legal principles of care in patients in a persistent vegetative state.Professional guidelines have long recommended against offering dialysis to such patients.  But perhaps we are moving to a stronger position that nephrologists should not administer it even when demanded. &nb...

Read More

Five Wishes Online - FREE

In honor of the 15th anniversary of the Five Wishes advance directive, Aging with Dignity is offering FREE uses of its Five Wishes Online resource for a limited time.  This is a $5 value.  There are currently 20 million copies of Five Wishes in national circulati...

Read More

Bioethics, Health Policy, and Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Age of Obamacare

Monday, November 18th, 2013, at Cardozo Law SchoolOpening Keynote SpeechDebra GerardiPanel 1: Clinical Ethics ConsultationNancy Dubler (moderator)Autumn FiesterThaddeus PopeCharity ScottLunch Keynote SpeechArthur Caplan, “Rationing Evidence and Obamacare”Panel 2: Obamacare and ADRMichelle Skipper (moderator)Mindy HattonMichael KosnitzkyJoe MillerPanel 3: End-of-Life Decision MakingCarol Liebman (moderator)Edward BergmanNancy BerlingerEllen WaldmanClosing...

Read More

Supreme Court of Canada to Issue Cuthberston v. Rasouli Judgment on Oct. 18

The Supreme Court of Canada just announced that it will issue its judgment in Cuthbertson v. Rasouli at 9:45 EST on Friday, October 18, 2013.Here is the Court's summary of the case:The respondent is in a coma.  The appellants, who are his physicians, seek to withdraw life‑sustaining treatment and to administer palliative care.  The respondent’s substitute decision‑maker under the Health Care Consent Act, 1996, S.O. 1996, c. 2, refuses...

Read More

Minnesota End-of-Life Care CLE in October

Minnesota Healthcare Roundtable discussion on Advance Care PlanningThursday, October 24, 2013, from 1:00 to 4:00Minnesota Physician Publishing Ed Ratner, MD, University of Minnesota Center for BioethicsSuzanne M. Scheller, Esq., Scheller Legal Solutions LLCCheryl Stephens, PhD, MBA - President, CEO, Community Health Information CollaborativeTomás Valdivia, MD, MS - CEO, Lumināt. Guardianships and End-of-Life Care – The Tschumy Case – A Review of the Legal Implications of the Tschumy Case and the Scope of Guardianship Authority as it Relates...

Read More

Carter v. Canada - Appellate Opinion

In June 2012, I called the Supreme Court of British Columbia's opinion in Carter v. Canada as "masterful."   Unfortunately,today,  the Court of Appeal for British Columbia reversed that ruling in this 86-page opinion, holding that Canada's prohibition on assisted-dying accorded with precedent and with the principles of fundamental justi...

Read More

Should the Lives of Loved Ones Always Be Extended by Technology?

In this 3-minute video clip, Katy Butler, the author of Knocking on Heaven's Door, joins Aljazeera America's Consider This host Antonio Mora to share her experiences caring for her aging parents, and offers her opinions on end-of-life ca...

Read More

Ezekiel Emanuel Presentation at Hamline Law

THE HAMLINE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW DEAN’S DINNERThe Dean’s Dinner is Hamline Law’s annual celebration of transformative ideas and imagination in the law. This year’s Dean’s Dinner will continue that tradition when we feature Dr. Ezekiel “Zeke” Emanuel at the new Muse Event Center in the Minneapolis warehouse district. Dr. Emanuel—a trained oncologist and political scientist—is one of the leading practitioners shaping the future of healthcare...

Read More

Fellowship - Call for Applications: Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, & Bioethics

The Petrie-Flom Center is now accepting applications for2014-2016 Academic Fellowships.The Petrie-FlomCenter for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics isan interdisciplinary research program at Harvard Law School dedicated toscholarly research at the intersection of law and health policy, includingissues of health care financing and market regulation, biomedical research andinnovation, and bioethics. The Academic Fellowship...

Read More

Health Law at AALS 2014

The AALS Section on Law, Medicine & Health Care is sponsoring two programs at the 2014 annual meeting in New York City.  Sustainability and HealthSaturday, January 4, 2014, 2:00–3:45 p.m.This panel will explore the effects of the environment on health in western nations and the role that sustainability initiatives play with regard to wellness. The panel will be interdisciplinary, broadly spanning topics in health, environmental, and animal...

Read More

Harms of Overtreatment

Here is a crisp BMJ video illustrating how incentivizing clinicians to do more (especially at the end of life) leads to doing more.  &nb...

Read More

Stafford v. Texas - Removing Life Support Does Not Break Causation

Albert Cleveland Stafford stabbed Ricardo Martinez several times in the chest, which necessitated his being put on life support.Stafford was readily convicted of murder.  But he appealed, arguing that it was Martinez's removal of life support that caused his death, not the stabbing.Murder defendants often make this argument.  And they always lose.  Here too.  Yesterday, the Texas Court of Appeals for the 13th District...

Read More

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

Last November, I hosted a 200+ participant symposium at Hamline University titled "Legal, Medical, and Ethical Issues in Minnesota End-of-Life Care."  The Hamline Law Review has just published a volume of articles that were generated in conjunction with the Symposium.  Here is the TOC.Legal, Medical, and Ethical Issues in Minnesota End-of-Life Care: An Introduction to the SymposiumThaddeus M. PopeThe Nursing Home...

Read More

Health Care: How Long Should We Wait for a Miracle?

U.C. Davis Medical Professor Michael Wilkes writes about medical miracles in today's Sacramento Bee.Dr. Wilkes notes that 76 percent of Americans believe in miracles.  But he asks: "do we build a health care system that plans for miracles?  How much time and money should we invest in waiting for a medical miracle to occur at the bedside?"  "When a person is in intensive care and the only treatments are those considered “medically...

Read More

Ezekiel Emanuel at Hamline on November 21

   October 2013Hamline University School of Law's annual Dean's Dinner (Thursday, November 21), will feature prominent oncologist and political scientist Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel. Dr Emanuel has a long record of experience at the top levels of policy, and provides a uniquely thoughtful perspective on the most difficult issues in health care today.The Hamline Law Dean's Dinner, set this year for Thursday, November 21 , is...

Read More

Bioethics, Healthcare Policy, and Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Age of Obamacare

Bioethics, Healthcare Policy,  and Alternative Dispute Resolution in the Age of Obamacare Monday, November 18, 20139 a.m. - 5 p.m.Cardozo School of LawProminent speakers and panelists will explore cutting-edge topics including clinical ethics consultation, decision making at the end of life, and ADR in the context of the Affordable Healthcare Act ("Obamacare").Featuring:Adrienne Asch (Director, Center for Ethics and Professor...

Read More