Hospice Ethics Policy and Practice in Palliative Care

Oxford University Press has just published Hospice Ethics: Policy and Practice in Palliative Care.  



Hospice is one of the fastest-growing segments of the U.S. healthcare system, a trend that is expected to accelerate as the median age of the population continues to rise over the next three decades. Despite over forty percent of the population now dying while on hospice care, very little has been published on the ethical opportunities and challenges experienced in the everyday lives of those giving and receiving hospice care. 



This book is the first comprehensive collection devoted to analyzing distinctive ethical issues arising in the delivery of hospice care and designed to promote best ethical practices for hospice care professionals and organizations. Thirteen newly commissioned chapters by seventeen hospice experts populate three thematic sections of the book, each devoted to an aspect of the intersection between ethics and hospice care. Here is the table of contents:



Introduction 

Bruce Jennings and Timothy W. Kirk



Section I: Hospice: The Emergence of a Philosophy of Care



1. "From Rites to Rights of Passage": Ideals, Politics, and the Evolution of the American Hospice Movement

Joy Buck



2. Hospice Care as a Moral Practice: Exploring the Philosophy and Ethics of Hospice Care

Timothy W. Kirk



Section II: The Interdisciplinary Team: Ethical Opportunities and Challenges



3. The Pharmacist as an Integral Member of the Hospice Interdisciplinary Team

R. Timothy Tobin



4. The Continuingly Evolving Role of the Hospice Medical Director

Joan Harrold



5. The Interdisciplinary Team - Integrating Moral Reflection and Deliberation 

Terry Altilio and Nessa Coyle



Section III: Organizational and Policy Ethics in Hospice 



6. Ethical Issues in the Care of Infants, Children and Adolescents

Marcia Levetown and Stacy Orloff



7. The 'Patient-Family Dyad' as Interdependent Unit of Hospice Care: Toward an Ethical Justification

Patrick T. Smith



8. Inpatient Hospice Care: Organizational and Ethical Considerations

Tara Friedman



9. Ethical Issues Associated with Hospice in Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Communities

Jean C. Munn and Sheryl Zimmerman



10. Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in Hospice: Ethically Justified or an Oxymoron?

Muriel R. Gillick



11. Moral Meanings of Physician-Assisted Death for Hospice Ethics

Courtney S. Campbell 



12. Ethics Committees for Hospice: Moving Beyond the Acute Care Model 

Jennifer Ballentine and Pamela Dalinis



Section IV: Ethics and the Future of Hospice



13. Design for Dying: New Directions for Hospice and End-of-life Care 

Bruce Jennings