Bioethics at the Oscars
As I’m sure you’ve heard by now, the big news coming out of the Academy Awards last night is the mixup regarding the Best Picture winner. Even without that, though, you probably wouldn’t have heard much about a...
Read MoreTag: hospice
To Be Human can be Really Hard
Last week I wrote about the Massachusetts Medical Society’s plans to survey their members, part of which involved a debate over the terms medical aid in dying” vs. “physician-assisted suicide.” As part of that discussion,...
Read MoreThis Week in Bioethics
1. Can We? Should We? Our Christopher White this week highlighted two ways in which President George W. Bush’s decision — now 15 years ago — to limit federal funding for embryo destructive stem cell research has been...
Read MoreEnd of “Abandon All Hope” Hospice Model?
When I was researching my book on bioethics, Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in America, the late Dame Cecily Saunders honored me with a 30 minute interview at her St.Christopher’s Hospice. For those who may not...
Read MoreWho Cares What Great Palliative Docs Think?
The greatest palliative care physicians of our era are (or were) against assisted suicide. Dame Cecily Saunders–one of the great medical humanitarians in history for creating the modern hospice movement–told me that she saw...
Read MoreNPR Audience Wants End of Life Care Rationed for the Elderly
Recently, NPR held a debate (PDF) on rationing end of life care, with utilitarian philosopher Peter Singer and an ER doctor named Arthur Kellerman arguing yes, and Christian lawyer Ken Connor and the head of Pacific Research...
Read MoreUK Elderly Shuffled Off This Mortal Coil?
New York Times former editor and current columnist, Bill Keller, recently extolled the NHS’ Livermore Care Pathway in a column entitled, “How to Die.” He complimented the method of his father-in-law’s...
Read MoreNo One Dies Alone
By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC How refreshing. The media so often focus on doctor-prescribed death advocates and social outlaws like Kevorkian, that people who do really good, compassionate, and...
Read MoreThe Problems With Hospice
By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Stories like this drive me crazy. A for-profit hospice is being sued for allowing one of its patients to have maggots in a wound without treatment. The excuse given is...
Read MoreTens of Millions Worldwide Have No Pain Control
By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC When I had the honor of interviewing the founder of hospice, Dame Cecily Saunders, for my book Culture of Death, at the end of our conversation, I asked the usual catchall...
Read MoreHospice Under Financial Pressure as Advocates Push Assisted Suicide
By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC Connect the dots: Legalized assisted suicide costs about $100 for the drugs, and perhaps $1,000 for the medical review. Assisted suicide is pushed unremittingly across the...
Read MoreOregon Hospices Right Not to Cooperate With Assisted Suicide
By Wesley J. Smith, J.D., Special Consultant to the CBC I am rarely encouraged by news out of Oregon about assisted suicide, where doctors may legally prescribe a lethal overdose to patients they diagnose as terminally ill. Over...
Read More