Medical Aid in Dying

Jul 23

2

Choosing Death Over Suffering: Informing Patients About Physician Aid-In-Dying (Part 1)

By Amber Comer | ALS, Assisted Suicide, End-of-life care, Medical Aid in Dying, Oregon Death with Dignity Act, PAD | One Comment

As more states legalize PAD and the practice becomes more ethically accepted, it is important to determine a standard of care to guide physicians.

Jun 04

2

Respecting End-of-Life Choice: The Art of the Possible

By Barak Wolff | Assisted Suicide, End-of-life care, Medical Aid in Dying, Oregon Death with Dignity Act, Right-to-Die Laws | One Comment

Advocates, supporters, and champions (of MAiD) need to decide if it is better to have a law that is less than ideal … or have no law at all? Is something better than nothing?

May 28

2

We Like To Talk About “A Good Death”. But How Often Does This Really Happen?

By Andreas Laupacis | Dying, End-of-life care, Good Death, Medical Aid in Dying, Palliative Care, Suffering and Death | 6 Comments

Even though I would argue that most deaths aren’t good, we improve the quality of death of the vast majority of people we care for, often substantially. And there isn’t much that’s more satisfying than that.

It just doesn’t make the death good.

May 14

0

Medical Aid In Dying Is Still Called “Assisted Suicide”; An Anthropologist Explains The Problem With That

By Anita Hannig | Assisted Suicide, Choice, Completed Life, Death, Death With Dignity, Death With Dignity Act, Dying, Grief, Medical Aid in Dying, Mental Illness, Oregon Death with Dignity Act, PAD, Rational Death, Rational Suicide, Religion, Right-to-Die Laws, Suffering and Death, Suicide, The Right to Die | 5 Comments

It’s time that we revise and refine our cultural lexicon around this emergent end-of-life practice. A medically assisted death definitively warrants a linguistic and conceptual category of its own.

May 07

1

DEA Has Rare Moment Of Good Sense, Prodded By Outcry From Right To Die Community

By Jay Niver | COVID-19, Death With Dignity, Medical Aid in Dying | 4 Comments

We had a a rare reason to celebrate last week when the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) pulled back on its threat to curtail the boom in “telemedicine” that allowed us to deal with COVID-19.

Mar 26

1

Quality Of Life At The End Of Life

By Barak Wolff | Choice, Death With Dignity, End-of-life care, End-of-Life Planning, Medical Aid in Dying, Right-to-Die Laws, The Right to Die | One Comment

The lawsuit does not attack the right of patients to access medical aid in dying, which is the heart of the bill. Rather, it challenges provisions of the law that require providers to inform patients of the availability of medical aid in dying, and to refer those patients to a willing provider if the patient’s primary provider is unable or is unwilling for any reason.

Feb 05

1

Older, White and More Educated People Choose Medical Aid in Dying

By Sukanya Charuchandra | Hospice, Medical Aid in Dying, Palliative Care | 3 Comments

“You have to be well connected within a network of doctors or skilled in researching such matters, and that’s one possible explanation of why well-educated people are disproportionately represented in our findings.”

Jan 29

0

Whose Death Is It, Anyway?

By Ron Kokish | Choice, Death With Dignity, Dementia, Medical Aid in Dying, PAD, The Right to Die | 4 Comments

Unconscious, Michael lingered for hours. His waiting children had no one to call for advice, but Michael had left instructions for this eventuality. Sobbing, his son Bill lovingly carried out his father’s wishes.

Jan 08

1

Times to Have “The Conversation”

By Karen Purze | Advance Directives, Choice, Completed Life, Death With Dignity, Disability, DNR, End-of-life care, End-of-Life Planning, Funeral Planning, Healthcare Power of Attorney, Healthcare Proxy, Hospice, Medical Aid in Dying, Mental Illness, PAD, Palliative Care, Rational Death, Religion, Spirituality, Suffering and Death, Surrogate, VSED, Wills | 6 Comments

“The rest is up to you,” he finally said, ending the conversation for good. He didn’t have any more guidance, and certainly no more patience to talk about it. I was surprised. To me, it felt slightly irresponsible to leave all these decisions to other people.

Dec 04

0

Psychosocial Reasons For Hastening Death

By Mary Ewert, FEN Executive Director | Dementia, End-of-life care, Final Exit Network, Medical Aid in Dying, Right-to-Die Laws, Suffering and Death, Suicide | 4 Comments

Recognizing the importance of psychosocial factors to those considering a hastened death led FEN to more explicitly recognize the importance of psychosocial factors when evaluating an applicant’s medical records. By making psychosocial factors more explicit in our criteria, we honor what truly matters to those who reach out to us.