An obituary I would like to see
No, it is not an obituary for a specific individual. It is an obituary that recognizes and celebrates taking control of one’s end-of-life suffering. (Continue reading ...)
Seeking justice in Minnesota
On April 16, 2018, the Final Exit Network (FEN) filed a lawsuit in federal district court against the State of Minnesota. The suit asks the court to declare that Minnesota's law prohibiting speaking to a person about how to hasten her own death is a violation of the free speech clause of the First Amendment of the US Constitution. The suit seeks, also, to void FEN’s conviction under the statute, and to bar the State of Minnesota from again initiating a prosecution of FEN, and its personnel, under the statute based solely on the utterance of “speech” that “enables” a suicide. (Continue reading ...)
When Something Has Happened We’d All Prefer Not: My Advance Directives In case of a Sudden Life Threatening Event
Timothy Boon, RN, is the CEO of Good Shepherd Community Care (GSCC) in Newton, MA. GSCC is an independent, community-based, not-for-profit, non-sectarian, hospice care agency, the first organized in Massachusetts 40 years ago. Recently, he wrote a poem in the style of Dr. Seuss, and recited it on video for ZDoggMD (otherwise known as Dr. Zubin Damania, Founder of Turntable Health, a direct primary care clinic in downtown Las Vegas). The poem is posted here by permission of the author. The video is posted courtesy of ZDoggMD. (Continue reading ...)
Dying together
It is not unusual for married couples to die within a few days, weeks, or months of one another. It has become more common in recent years for couples, especially those who have been together for many years and are in poor health, to plan their deaths together by taking barbiturates or some other drug that is deadly when taken in sufficient quantity. Recently, through Canada's assisted-dying law, a Canadian couple, married for almost 73 years, arranged their joint deaths in the same bed, while holding hands. (Continue reading ...)
Helping Kids Think About Death Without an Afterlife
Talking to children about death is a topic not yet dealt with on this blog. This first discussion by author and blogger Dale McGowan approaches the topic from a freethinking, rather than from a religious perspective. Even for the religious among us, McGowan offers some insights that may be helpful. And even adults may derive benefit from his perspective. (Continue reading ...)
Thinking about being a burden on others
When a family member provides care in the home for someone with a disability, when does this responsibility become a burden on the caregiver? Is being a burden asking too much of a family member? These and related questions are discussed in this week's post. (Continue reading ...)
American Academy of Neurology Drops Opposition to Medical Aid in Dying
Thaddeus Pope writes about the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) dropping its longtime opposition to legislation giving terminally ill patients the option of medical aid in dying (MAID). In addition, he identifies numerous local, state, regional, and national medical-related groups that have now taken a neutral position on MAID or endorsed its use. (Continue reading ...)
A closer look at VSED
In my last post, I discussed some general propositions about Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED). In this post, I look at some VSED issues in greater detail. (Continue reading ...)
VSED and the “rage against the dying of the light”
I learned that VSED doesn’t have to be a horrible way to hasten one’s death. With proper care, it can be done without pain or distress. The first two or three days are sometimes the most difficult because of hunger pangs and thirst. The hunger is easy to control if one has access to pain medication. The thirst can be ameliorated with proper oral care, such as judicious use of ice chips, rinses, and lubricating gels. (Continue reading ...)
What do we know about implementation of Physician Assistance in Dying (PAD)
This National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine sponsored a workshop last week that was intended to explore the evidence base and research gaps relating to the implementation of the clinical practice of allowing terminally ill patients to access life-ending medications with the aid of a physician. The workshop examined what is known, and unknown, about how physician-assisted death is practiced and accessed in the United States; it was not to be a focus of the workshop to discuss at length the moral or ethical arguments for or against the practice of physician-assisted death. It was billed as a neutral space to facilitate dialogue in order to help inform ongoing discussions between patients, their providers, and other health care stakeholders. What follows is a report on that workshop. (Continue reading ...)