On April 24, Netflix released the six-episode second season of “After Life,” starring, directed, and written by comedian Ricky Gervais. It continues to take viewers through the grief that Gervais’s character Tony Johnson experiences after the death of his wife, Lisa, from breast cancer.
Healthcare surrogates are always important, but their role has become more difficult during the Covid-19 pandemic. Read about what can be done in this situation.
We now know that the coronavirus pandemic is deadly serious for all of the world’s people. This fact has been reasonably clear since mid-January, and was undeniably clear a month later. As of now, this nation does not have the pandemic under control, and we did not control it at any time since it began.
We are all in the high-risk category for death because all living things die. However, each of us hopes to live a long, productive (however defined), satisfying life in the meantime. Covid-19 is causing many of us to reassess how long we may have left.
A dialogue about the right to die in interview format between the blog editor and a woman who has lived over four decades as a paraplegic.
Slippery slope arguments deny rationality, moral precepts, and legal principles. Few of us who believe in a right to die go beyond the formulation of this right as a voluntary decision of one person about that person’s life. The view that no one has the right to take from us the liberty to make such decisions to end our lives except ourselves appears to be the norm in this society for those who are near the end of their lives because of disease or condition. Voluntariness is inextricably bound up with the decision to die to escape suffering near the end of life.
A brief look at suicide historically, philosophically, constitutionally, legally, and practically as a right to all who value liberty.
How the Final Exit Network works to make hastening one’s own death a rational endeavor–a review of the process.
Patients complete advance directives without a physician’s approval, though they may seek a physician’s advice in doing so. Only a physician can issue a DNR order or a POLST, in consultation with the patient or surrogate. So long as the preferences and directives of patients are an integral part of the process, POLSTs appear to be a useful addition to late-stage medical care decision making
Last week, I referred a caller to the Final Exit Network (FEN) to John B. Kelly, a Not Dead Yet opponent of right-to-die (RTD) laws. The person was inquiring on behalf of his brother (I’ll call him Carl) about the education and training services that FEN offers to applicants who want to hasten their deaths. The brother was trying to learn if FEN could help Carl, who was despairing of his condition.
