Six-year anniversary of Terri's death

Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation: It was six years ago today, March 31, 2005, that 41-year-old Terri Schiavo succumbed to 13 days of court-ordered dehydration and starvation under the watchful eyes of a security guard posted nearby.

This issue of Caring Right at Home

Avoiding Re-Hospitalization with In-Home Care:

• Avoiding Re-Hospitalization with In-Home Care
• Potential Tax Relief for Caregivers
• Distinguishing 'Senior Moments' from Alzheimer's

Baby Joseph Update

Baby Joseph Update | Daily News | NCRegister.com: The 14-month-old is recovering well following a tracheotomy. He is expected to soon be moved to a St. Louis pediatric specialty hospital before going home to Canada.

Not all advance directives created equal

Some – particularly of the short form variety – push signers toward refusing care. Others, take the decisions out of the hands of family. . . .  Living wills allow the patient state ahead of time what is not wanted and what is. But that can be problematic. The precise circumstances often cannot be known in advance. And it is up to the doctor to determine when the living will takes effect. . . . That can create a conflict of interest between patient and doctor, or require the doctor to make assumptions about what a patient might or might not want if circumstance faced is not directly mentioned in the living will. . . .

The best advance directive is the durable power of attorney for health care (as it is called in CA–it may have a different name in your jurisdiction). It allows the signer to name a known and trusted person to make decisions in times of incapacity, as well as to give general directions about future care. It also allows the designated person to obtain medical records–which can be difficult under HIPPA privacy laws. With a durable power, there is no need to anticipate every exigency, merely find a trusted person capable of making decisions according to your own values. Secondhand Smoke

Baptists for Life has a Protective Medical Decisions Declaration that helps signers guide their proxy decision-makers. It is available for download free of charge and is made to accompany Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care forms for all fifty states available for download free of charge from National Right to Life.

Europe-Wide Survey Reveals Priorities For End-Of-Life Care

Europe-Wide Survey Reveals Priorities For End-Of-Life Care - Health News - redOrbit: A survey of over 9,000 people in 7 different countries across Europe has shown that the majority would want to improve the quality of life in the time they had left, rather than extend it.

51 died under Washington's assisted-suicide law in 2010

amednews: 51 died under Washington's assisted-suicide law in 2010 :: March 28, 2011 ... American Medical News: More than 600 patients have died after ingesting lethal medication as a result of aid-in-dying laws since 1998. In Washington, 68 physicians wrote life-ending prescriptions for 87 patients, 51 of whom took the medication and died. As of Feb. 9, 15 died of their illnesses before taking the lethal medication, and another 15 patients were still alive. For the remaining six deaths, it is unclear whether the patients ingested the medication prescribed under the law.

Medicare’s Embedded Ethics: The Challenge Of Cost Control In An Aging Society

Medicare’s Embedded Ethics: The Challenge Of Cost Control In An Aging Society – Health Affairs Blog: The ethical judgments embedded in the connections among evidence-based medicine, Medicare policy, standards of care, need and expectation are not acknowledged and have not been included in discussions of the causes of rising medical care costs. While the technical yardsticks of safety and efficacy have been the basis for coverage decisions, the linkages from government-funded and industry-driven evidence to coverage approval, to standards of care and then to need, all include implicit ethical judgments and choices in and of themselves.

Access to MS treatment criticised

The Press Association: Access to MS treatment criticised: Multiple sclerosis patients could be driven to suicide by a lack of access to treatment, a campaigner will tell British MPs. Debbie Purdy says that guidance on assisted suicide issued in 2009 is being 'undermined' because the quality of life of MS sufferers is being damaged by inconsistent access to medication.

Unofficial euthanasia is practiced in the UK

Unofficial euthanasia is practiced in the UK: Dr. Clare Walker | LifeSiteNews.com: Dr. Clare Walker, President of the Catholic Medical Association in the UK, recently stated that: “euthanasia is being widely practiced in the National Health Service.” Dr. Walker explained that she is regularly contacted by distressed healthcare professionals and managers who describe their experience of witnessing repeated instances of unofficial active euthanasia in their local areas.

Melchert-Dinkel Guilty of Assisting Suicide

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: Melchert-Dinkel Guilty!: William Francis Melchert-Dinkel has been found guilty of advising two people to commit suicide. The evidence shows that Melchert-Dinkel worked from his home in Minnesota, and used the internet to actively encourage Mark Drybrough to hang himself in Coventry, UK, in 2005. In 2008, he encouraged Nadia Kajouji to end her life in Ottawa, Canada.

Dr Death planning to open euthanasia clinic in South Australia

Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: Dr Death planning to open euthanasia clinic in South Australia: The South Australian legislature is debating a bill that would legalize euthanasia. Meanwhile, Philip Nitschke, Australia's Dr. Death, is scouting Adelaide, Australia, for a location to open a euthanasia clinic.

Changing attitudes towards euthanasia among medical students in Austria

Changing attitudes towards euthanasia among medical students in Austria -- Stronegger et al. 37 (4): 227 -- Journal of Medical Ethics: The survey period from 2001 to 2009 reveals a massive change in medical students' attitudes towards active euthanasia under medical supervision. Ethical convictions of medical doctors seem to fall back behind a higher valuation of the autonomy of the patient. Acceptance of active euthanasia increased from 16.3% to 29.1% to 49.5% in the periods from 2001 to 2003/04 to 2008/09.

Death by mail

For years, he struggled through bouts of pain and fatigue that defied medical diagnosis and left him depressed about his inability to carry on normal daily activities and fearful that he would never regain normal health. He had dreams, ambitions, accomplishments and, say many who knew him, vast potential. But three months ago, in the throes of a flu that upended a period of relatively good health, Nick Klonoski took his own life. He had just turned 29. Klonoski did not use any of the commonly known methods of suicide. Instead, he employed a “helium hood kit” that he ordered by mail from a two-person company in Southern California. . . .

In Oregon, a person who “intentionally causes or aids another person to commit suicide” can be prosecuted for second-degree manslaughter, except for cases of physician-assisted suicide carried out according to the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, which defines the procedure as medical treatment. . . .

[A]n article that appeared this month in the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, suggesting that the rate of suicide by helium asphyxiation correlates directly with the first revised version of “Final Exit” in 2000 that included initial instructions for the method, as well as the subsequent revisions published in 2002 and 2009.

In their article, “Suicide by Asphyxiation Due to Helium Inhalation,” the researchers surmise that many more deaths from helium take place than are documented: In some cases the apparatus is removed before examination of the death scene; the presence of helium is difficult to detect during autopsy or toxicology; or no testing is done because the death resulted from suicide.

. . . Dr. Karen Gunson, Oregon’s chief medical examiner, said she has noticed an uptick in the number of helium-related deaths recently. Register Guard

Running With Patience

Running With Patience | Radio | Joni and Friends: It’s been a long, long time since I heard the gun at the starting block – when I was a teenager learning how to cope with quadriplegia, I was just getting started in this race. And now, what with cancer behind me and four decades of quadriplegia, I am past that middle distance… and I'm not about to veer off to the left or right, this late in the race. And although I'm near the end of that long stretch in between the start and finish – I'm nearer the finish line now than I was when I first began. So I want to press on through my afflictions to reach for the prize, the high calling of knowing Christ Jesus. I want to hear, “Well done good and faithful servant.” I want to run this race with patience, and finish it with confidence.

Euthanasia “Choice” Would Often Not Be

Euthanasia “Choice” Would Often Not Be » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: Wesley J. Smith has been fighting the euthanasia agenda since 1993. "During that time, the arguments haven’t changed much, although the euphemisms have. But even after all those years, I still marvel that many euthanasia/assisted suicide promoters think the 'choice' is as sterile as choosing between an I-phone or a BlackBerry."

Assisted Suicide Advocate Heads Up Palliative Care in Vermont

Assisted Suicide Advocate Heads Up Palliative Care in Vermont | LifeNews.com: Porter Medical Center proudly announced their new Partners in Palliative and Home Care practice staffed with Diana Barnard, MD and Will Porter, MD in the summer of 2009. Dr. Barnard is a strong advocate for assisted suicide, and has been for many years.

Free Elder Care Planning Seminar w/ Complimentary Sizzler Dinner

Time: Wednesday, April 13 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm
Location: Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant
216 Van Raalte Avenue, Holland, MI

Sponsored by: Plachta, Murphy and Associates, P.C.

Covers:
• Estate Planning Documents
• Tapping into Government Benefits
• Social Security Disability
• VA Aid & Attendance
• Medicare/Medicaid Planning
• Caregiver Contracts
• Long-term Care Insurance
• Identifying Home Care Needs

Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant located in Holland at 6:00pm. This event is held in their exquisite private Macatawa Room and includes a complimentary sizzler dinner, salad, rolls, and beverage! This seminar will last approximately 1 ½ hours including a question and answer period. ALL AT NO COST, BUT YOU MUST RSVP! Contact Jeremy for more information: 458-3994

Selective Killing Fields: POLST in Action

Selective Killing Fields: POLST in Action - American Life League: The Nation's Largest Grassroots Catholic Pro-Life Organization: Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) is another in a long line of efforts to persuade people to refuse medical treatment. Living Wills and Powers of Attorney for Health Care (advance directives) have not been as successful in this area as their creators in the right-to-die movement had hoped they would be.

Put quite simply, POLST protocols and laws are the “death with dignity” squad’s latest attempt to select those whose lives are viewed as “futile” in order to ensure their speedy demise. POLST forms are designed to limit the use of life-saving technology, life-sustaining treatment and even ordinary care, such as the provision of food and water. “Compassion” and “patient autonomy” are the alleged motives for promulgating POLST forms. However, a look at their origin tells a different story.

Baby Joseph gets tracheotomy, will be able to go home

Baby Joseph gets tracheotomy, will be able to go home | LifeSiteNews.com: Joseph Maraachli, who had been set to have his ventilator removed against his parents’ wishes at an Ontario hospital last month, received a tracheotomy Monday morning and is doing well, says his family. The surgery involves a slit in the throat to allow a breathing tube to be inserted into the airway. The tube allows for suction of fluid out of the lungs, creates a safe and stable way to use a mechanical ventilator, and is more comfortable for the child. The parents have been asking for this procedure in hopes that they could take Joseph home.

Legislation to Require Psychological “Counseling” in Oregon Assisted Suicide Would Still Not Protect

Legislation to Require Psychological “Counseling” in Oregon Assisted Suicide Would Still Not Protect » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: The ever shrinking and less informative doctor-prescribed death suicide statistics published by Oregon show that suicidal patients are almost never referred for psychological counseling (one last year and zero the year before). So legislation has been introduced to require it.

Eugenics lawmaker resigns

CGS : Eugenics lawmaker resigns: New Hampshire State Rep. Martin Harty resigned yesterday, facing outrage from constituents, colleagues and strangers over comments he made endorsing eugenics for what he called 'defective people.'

Today is World Down Syndrome Day!

This day in history: Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed

Terri Schiavo's feeding tube removed: It was six years ago, on March 18, 2005, that the feeding tube which provided sustenance to 41-year-old Terri Schiavo was removed. As the world watched, she was forced to dehydrate to death over the next 13 days.

Mum’s grief: Medics left 22 week pre-term baby to die

Mum’s grief: Medics left 22 week pre-term baby to die | News | The Christian Institute: Tracy Godwin gave birth to her son Tom on 6 March last year when she was in the 22nd week of her pregnancy. But the 31-year-old was left aghast when medics at Southend University NHS Hospital refused to help her son. She had not been told that the hospital does not intervene with babies born under 23 weeks.

Describing the experience she said: “They put him in my arms and he cried and was wriggling around. I could feel him breathing and see his eyelashes and fingers and toes. But I kept thinking, ‘Where’s the incubator?’ We were begging the midwives to do something to help him but no one was saying anything. He was not stillborn, he was trying to live. If they had tried for an hour and said they couldn’t do anything more for him or he was severely brain damaged, that would have been different, but he wasn’t given a chance.”

Who is Baby Joseph Maraachli and Why Should I Care?

Who is Baby Joseph Maraachli and Why Should I Care? | LifeNews.com: Baby Joseph is all of us. The problem underlying this case is not simply one particular hospital or the Canadian medical system. The problem is a philosophy of life that says that how valuable you are depends on how well you function. The problem is a philosophy of medicine that says that if someone is going to die anyway, there’s no benefit in prolonging life. The problem is a philosophy of suffering that says we can actually determine what somebody else’s level of happiness is, and measure their misery, and that if they don’t have the good sense to eliminate it, we can step in and do so against their wishes.

State of physician-assisted suicide in the US

Since Oregon became the first to legalize physician assisted suicide, this issue has come up in several other states.  Many have passed laws prohibiting physician assisted suicide, while others are currently debating this issue.

Report: Alzheimer's caregivers suffer heavy toll

Report: Alzheimer's caregivers suffer heavy toll | MLive.com: There are nearly 15 million Alzheimer’s and dementia caregivers providing 17 billion hours of unpaid care valued at $202 billion. Those figures are important because caregivers are often at risk of serious illness and death.

How Animal Therapy Helps Dementia Patients

How Animal Therapy Helps Dementia Patients - Alzheimer's Disease Center - Everyday Health: Therapy dogs and other animals can stimulate social interaction and ease agitation in dementia patients. But it takes specially trained pets to bring the full benefit of animal therapy into elder care settings.

Doctors and nurses in the UK launch campaign for right to help terminally ill to end their lives

Doctors and nurses launch campaign for right to help terminally ill to end their lives | Society | The Observer: Healthcare Professionals for Change, a group of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, says it wants to challenge bodies such as the British Medical Association, which oppose any change in the law that would allow others to help terminally ill people to die. The group is the first professional body of its kind to be set up with the explicit aim of changing the 1961 Suicide Act, which forbids such assistance.

Baby Joseph Will Have Tracheotomy by the End of the Week

Baby Joseph Will Have Tracheotomy by the End of the Week | LifeNews.com: A team of specialists at the Catholic hospital have evaluated Joseph, who was “in serious but stable condition,” on arrival from London, Ontario Health Sciences Centre. In a statement released yesterday afternoon, Dr. Robert Wilmott said Joseph “likely will have a tracheotomy performed by the end of this week to facilitate his transition to a skilled nursing facility.”

Editor: I thought the idea was to enable Joseph to go home.

Grand Rapids area SarahCare events

Monday March 21, 2011  Adult Children caring for Parents Group at Cornerstone Church (84th and Kalamazoo) 7-8pm

Thursday March 24, 2011 7-9  SarahCare Support Group - The Memory Loss Tapes and discussion to follow - A great documententary if you have not already seen it!

Thursday April 14, 2011  10am-11am  Alzheimer's Support Group at St. Paul's United Methodist Church on Breton Ave.  

Kendra S. Schumaker MSW, LMSW (Executive Director)
SarahCare Adult Day Center, Metro Health Village
2024 Health Drive, Suite B, Wyoming, MI 49519
Phone: 616.530.6700

Understanding the implications of prenatal testing for Down syndrome

Understanding the implications of prenatal testing for Down syndrome: Research reviewed by Dr. Brian Skotko showed a 15% decrease in births of babies with Down syndrome between 1989 and 2005 in the United States. In the absence of prenatal testing, researchers would have anticipated the opposite - a 34% increase in births - due to the trend of women waiting longer to have children; known to increase the chances of having a baby with Down syndrome. LifeSiteNews

Get to Know: Well Spouse Association

Well Spouse Association | Our Mission | About WSA: The Well Spouse Association, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) membership organization, advocates for and addresses the needs of individuals caring for a chronically ill and/or disabled spouse/partner. We offer peer to peer support and educate health care professionals and the general public about the special challenges and unique issues 'well' spouses face every day.

Caregiver organizations

Care Community
Caregiver Media Group
CarersUK
CareSpace
Family Caregiver Alliance
Long Term Care Network (Canada)
Mt Sinai - Caregivers Resource Center
Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving
The Caregivers Advisory Panel
The Carer - UK
The Center to Advance Palliative Care
The National Family Caregivers Association

Spousal caregiver resources

Alzheimer's Spouse (The)
Alzheimer Caregivers Online
American Self Help Clearinghouse
And Thou Shalt Honor
Caregiver Survival Institute
Caregiver Wellness
Caregivers Home Companion
Caregivingly Yours
Caring For the Caregiver
Geriatric Care Management
GoodGrief Lifecoaching
In Sickness and In Health: A Place for Couples Dealing with Illness [Blog]
Labyrinth of Caregiving - AARP & Gail Sheehy
National Org for Empowering Caregivers
Strength for Caring
The Thoughtful Caregiver
Kind Ethics.com

Nurses Help Patients and Families Confront Ethical Issues

Research being done at the UCLA School of Nursing is showing that nurses can have a critical impact on the many ethical issues patients and their caregivers encounter in the growingly complex world of medicine. “Nurses are in a unique position to work within healthcare teams and influence the course of troubling ethical situations by being sensitive to early indicators of potentially difficult ethical questions,” said Carol Pavlish, Ph.D., RN, assistant professor at the UCLA School of Nursing. “Initiating early ethics consultation and intervention can greatly diminish the potential for patient and family suffering as well as for nurses’ moral distress.”

“Our study showed that unless ethically challenging situations are managed effectively, they often escalate into more complicated issues that erode confidence and result in compromised care,” said Pavlish. “Nurses are in a key position to recognize vulnerable patients, advocate on their behalf, and serve as an important liaison between the patient and other members of the caregiving team.” Business Wire

Get a Grip on the Grammer of Medical Decision-Making

Are you perplexed about how to make moral medical decisions? You are not alone. The distinctions between optional medical treatment and ordinary care, between letting a person die naturally and intentionally causing a person's death have become blurred. Confusion abounds. This confusion has been sown by "right to die" organizations determined to make euthanasia acceptable and legal. A very real war is being waged between the culture of life and the culture of death. A person's first line of defense in this culture war is a firm grasp of the moral principles that apply when making medical decisions. HLA

Sedated to death? When "comfort care" becomes dangerous

When the unknown actual incidence of terminating awareness-or insuring unawareness-in patients with stroke, dementia or other serious illnesses is factored in, the use of terminal sedation as a form of "comfort care" may well be approaching epidemic proportions, even outside the hospice area. As a former hospice nurse and now as an ICU nurse caring for some patients who turn out to be dying, I support the appropriate use of pain and sedating medications as ethical comfort care. However, even in circumstances where such medications are necessary, I have never seen a case where a patient "needed" to be made permanently unconscious.HLA

Resource: Imposed Death

Articles include:

• Living Wills: Vital... or Deadly?
• What About Pain Control?
• Not Dead Yet: Support to Live, Not to Die
• Thirsty? Too Bad.
• Hospice Care: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
• "Persistent Vegetative State"
• Imposed Death in the U.S.
• Are You Sure You'd Never Want to be Hooked Up to a Machine?

Download Your Copy Now

Washington: 51 People Die From Assisted Suicide in 2nd Year

A new report from Washington state officials shows 87 people received lethal doses of medications under the second-in-the-nation law that legalized the practice of assisted suicide. The Department of Health report reveals 71 individuals died — with 51 people reportedly having after ingesting the lethal dose and 15 dying from other causes. The Department of Health does not know if the remaining 6 people died of assisted suicide or from another cause. The Department of Health also does not know the status for the 16 remaining people who requested lethal medications — whether they are dead or alive or if they died from natural causes or from assisted suicide. LifeNews

Excerpts of hospital's statement about transfer of Baby Joseph

"Despite the strongest possible medical advice to the contrary from medical experts in Canada, the United States and Europe, the parents of Baby Joseph Maraachli have accepted an offer to transfer him by air to the faith-based Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri.

"His parents exercised their legal right to have him discharged after LHSC exhausted all its legal options in attempting to deliver to Baby Joseph the best possible and most appropriate medical care, given the progressive, fatal neurodegenerative disease from which he suffers. An LHSC medical team transported Baby Joseph to London International Airport in the presence of his father.

"The medical judgments about Baby Joseph made by LHSC physicians remain unchallenged by any credible medical or legal source. Those judgments remain supported by 9 pediatric specialists in Ontario as well as pediatric specialists in the U.S. and Europe, Ontario’s Consent and Capacity Board, and the Superior Court of Ontario, as being in the best interests of Baby Joseph.

"LHSC physicians and staff were targeted by well-organized social media feeds and directly via email with personal threats, threats to their families, innuendoes and falsehoods. The threats, many of which emanated from members of U.S.-based groups, have been passed along to LHSC lawyers who will liaise with police where appropriate."

Editor: Any threats, innuendoes, or falsehoods concerning the hospital's actions are regrettable. This blog post explains the family's side. Some articles have cast their endeavor as an attempt to save Baby Joseph's life at all cost. This is not the case. Another article tried to posit the removal of Baby Joseph from the hospital as "covert." According to the above, that may not be an accurate statement.

What's end-of-life care like in a 3rd world country?

Lori Smith, medical missionary in Papua New Guinea, writes: "In just one clinic day I had four cancer patients that are nearing the end of the number of their days on this earth.

"One of our dear ladies, Anna, has end stage cervical cancer. While sitting in the waiting area, her pain just became so intense she fainted. Our dear Pastor Ipa . . . picked her frial body up in his arms and tenderly carried her into the exam room like a father would gently gather up his wounded child.

"Anna is a 'regular.' The hospital has sent her home to die. There is no blessing like hospice here. People are sent home for them to do the best they can to suffer through the pain and agony of bodies succumbing to the invasion of cancer cells.

Anna hurt so much she just lay there and cried for her mama. My heart just bled in pain with and for her!! I held her and prayed and cried with her...my arms surrounding her until the pain released it's death grip on her body.

"Injecting the precious gift of pain medication...watching the instant relief sweep over her body..she relaxed in the mercy of the blessing of medicine. I could only think of the instant relief and release a simple decision to trust in Christ would bring her as well.

"The tumor now filling her abdomen, inflicting her with pain and agony. She is bleeding out both physically and in her strength, yet her heart remains strong and stubborn.

"Anna is coming to the end. It will be a really rough road. She needs mercy and peace only Christ can give her. Pray that she will submit herself to accepting that her religion and her best efforts in this life are not enough. She needs to trust alone in the finished work of Jesus. He paid it all so she could just accept His free gift of love and mercy!

"Her body left our clinic relieved, but her heart remained troubled and filled with fear."

Baby Joseph moved to US hospital

The baby who was hours from being pulled off life support at his Canadian hospital has been rescued by the national director of Priests for Life and taken to the U.S. for treatment. Thirteen-month-old Joseph Maraachli, who is currently kept alive by a respirator was on his way to SSM Cardinal Glennon Children's Medical Center in St. Louis, Mo., a non-profit health-care facility open to all children in need of medical care.He has been at the Children’s Hospital in London, Ontario, since the fall. FoxNews

Feeding tube restored to immigrant woman

A Rwandan immigrant woman and survivor of the horrors of the 1994 genocide who had her feeding tube removed because a U.S. Catholic-affiliated hospital deemed her care too expensive, apparently will not die of starvation and dehydration thanks to a court order and the efforts of her children. LifeSiteNews

UK Doctors Consistently Oppose Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

A review of research carried out over 20 years suggests that UK doctors appear to consistently oppose euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide (PAS). The findings highlight a gap between doctors' attitudes and those of the public. Science Daily

Who wants to decide the price of life?

Jamie was born just over the cusp of viability, on the day he turned 26 weeks. He spent the first year of his life attached to a ventilator in a west London hospital, and when he was discharged he was still attached to the ventilator via a tracheotomy – a hole in his neck with a tube connected to his oxygen supply. Until the tracheotomy was removed 16 months later he had nursing care for 21 hours a day. He has mild cerebral palsy, which manifests itself in his running on his tiptoes – though he scoots and walks flatfooted. He has cost the NHS hundreds of thousands of pounds. He is priceless. Guardian

Families haunted by end-of-life decisions

Families haunted by end-of-life decisions – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs: The burden of making medical decisions for a loved one can cause distress and even post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a report published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Indian Supreme Court says ‘passive euthanasia’ legal

Aruna to live, but SC says ‘passive euthanasia’ legal - Hindustan Times: In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India legalised passive euthanasia, giving thousands of patients living in a vegetative state all over the country the right to have artificial life-support systems withdrawn to enable them to end a life of misery. Justice Gyan Sudha Misra however said the right to permit a terminally ill patient to refuse medical treatment would be given under ‘guarded conditions” to prevent its misuse. The bench ruled that active euthanasia, which involves giving terminally ill patients lethal drugs to end their lives, could not be allowed as it is unconstitutional.

Baby case to be appealed

Baby case to be appealed | London | News | London Free Press: The parents of Baby Joseph have retained a Windsor lawyer who says he will appeal to Ontario's top court to stop a London hospital from removing the infant from life support. Claudio Martini said it appears London Health Science Centre will keep Joseph alive while the appeal is pending, a process he expects to take two or three months.

Editor: Of course, it's not really life-support that's keeping him alive. His times are in God's hands.

Ephrata High School cheers its MVP

Ephrata High School cheers its MVP Nice story about how two high school basketball teams include a disabled teammate.

Release of Medical Records Holding Up Transfer of Baby Joseph

Release of Medical Records Holding Up Transfer of Baby Joseph | LifeNews.com: There are U.S. physicians in Michigan willing to oversee Baby Joseph’s outpatient care and assist in weaning him off the home ventilator should it be necessary. We have yet to find one facility that said it would not perform the tracheostomy on Baby Joseph. The real problem is that health care providers in the U.S. need Baby Joseph’s medical records — but the Canadian authorities are refusing to release them. Canadian law requires the hospital to release these records to Baby Joseph’s parents upon request. And to date, they have refused.

The latest Terri Schiavo?

Immigrant’s Health Crisis Leaves Her Family on Sideline - NYTimes.com: On Feb. 19, Ms. Nyirahabiyambere’s feeding tube was removed on the order of her court-appointed guardian. Her six adult children — including two United States citizens — vehemently opposed that decision. But they were helpless to block it when Georgetown University Medical Center, frustrated in its efforts to discharge Ms. Nyirahabiyambere -- diagnosed as being in a 'persistent vegetative state' -- after she had spent eight costly months there without insurance, sought a guardian to make decisions that the family would not make. As of March 3 she was still alive.

NHS Official Says Let 23-Week Premature Babies Die

NHS Meltdown: NHS Official Says Let 23-Week Premature Babies Die » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: Rationing–which is a direct and unavoidable consequence of single payer health care funding–pits patient groups against each other, each seeking to exclude others from part of the pie so they can get more. A good example comes out of the UK, where the head of the NHS has said that babies at 23 weeks–viability is sometimes possible at 20–should be allowed to die because if they live, they’ll probably be disabled.

Time to address the secret shame of elder abuse

Time to address the secret shame of elder abuse - Opinion - bnd.com: We may honor seniors with words, but the treatment they receive from family members and caregivers is often another story. The older person who is isolated from family or social networks is a potential victim. They can be physically abused and intimidated, have medications withheld or their money stolen. Some are even sexually abused. As America's population ages, our ignorance of elder abuse is yet another indication that we're unprepared for the demographic changes ahead.

Sight Gets Repurposed in Brains of the Blind

Sight Gets Repurposed in Brains of the Blind | Wired Science | Wired.com: In the brains of people blind from birth, structures used in sight are still put to work — but for a very different purpose. Rather than processing visual information, they appear to handle language.

Baby Joseph case affects us all

The baby Joseph case concerns the question of who has the right to decide what is in the best interests of baby Joseph. . . . The issue is, who has the right to decide? Does the hospital and doctor, or does the family have the right to decide on how to care for their terminally ill child?

This case is different from most of the similar cases because it is not about a family requesting treatment that is futile, burdensome or extra-ordinary. The family is not asking for a portable ventilator to be set up in their home, even though this would be a reasonable option. They are not asking for in-home nursing care to be provided. They did not ask for experimental treatment plans. The family only asked to bring Joseph home; but to do so would require Joseph to be capable of breathing on his own. This is why they requested that a tracheotomy be done. A tracheotomy is not a difficult procedure; it is not futile, burdensome or extra-ordinary.

Some people have suggested that to withdraw the ventilator from baby Joseph would constitute an act of euthanasia. This is not true.

Euthanasia is an action or omission that directly and intentionally causes the death of another person with the intention of relieving suffering. Euthanasia is a form of homicide.

If the ventilator is withdrawn from baby Joseph, he is likely to die, but he may survive. If he dies, his death would be caused by his medical condition and not because of a direct and intentional action or omission. Even if the intention is to cause his death, the reality is that his death is not direct because it is caused by his medical condition and therefore is not euthanasia. Alex Schadenberg

RTL of Michigan's efforts to help Baby Joseph

Baby_Joseph: Though negotiations between the family and the Canadian hospital no longer involve a possible transfer to Michigan, Right to Life of Michigan remains keenly interested and involved in monitoring this tragic case. RLM Legislative Director Ed Rivet has been in daily communication with the team in Canada and has carefully reviewed the primary document being used to deny Joseph's parents the right to direct his medical care.

'The facts and events surrounding this case are convoluted, but the position of the hospital is clear. The medical team believes that Baby Joseph should have a medically-orchestrated death, rather than allow him to be taken home and given hospice care by his family,' Rivet said. 'That not only violates Joseph's right to compassionate end-of-life care, it completely tramples on his parents' rights to make decisions and care for him. The medical establishment is wrongly substituting their values and ethics for that of the parents.'

At death's window: Famed 'Christian' author helped friend die

At death's window - latimes.com: Anne Lamott wrote, "The man I killed did not want to die, but he no longer felt he had much of a choice. . . . Mel was sort of surprised that as a Christian I so staunchly agreed with him about assisted suicide: I believed that life was a kind of Earth school, so even though assisted suicide meant you were getting out early, before the term ended, you were going to be leaving anyway, so who said it wasn't OK to take an incomplete in the course?"

Case points up need for careful distinctions in palliative care

Stephan Bolton went to a newspaper with the story he killed his terminally ill wife Barbara Jean Jollimore-Bolton on January 22 by giving her an injection of two medications, but he now says he was following a doctor’s instructions and did not intend to kill her. 

Bolton blames an interaction between the morphine he usually gave her and a drug called Nozinan, saying he believes the doctor told him to inject her with the drug knowing it would react with the morphine and kill her. However, Dr. Peter Vaughan said the two drugs in question have been used together for many years in treating palliative patients.

“That combination of medications has been in use for a long time,” Vaughan said of morphine and Nozinan, noting morphine is effective at controlling pain, while Nozinan has been used for about five decades to control nausea and also acts as a pain reliever. They would be used together. We have no reason to believe at this point that anything out of the usual happened in this case.”

A police spokesman said Barbara Jollimore-Bolton’s death is being treated as “a suspicious death,” and the police will continue the investigation to decide whether charges will be laid. LifeSiteNews

Baby Joseph can go home to die, but without tracheotomy; unacceptable to family

Joseph Maraachli's physicians are willing to send him home, but with an important catch: they still refuse to perform the tracheostomy that allowed a sibling of Joseph’s who had a similar condition to live another six months at home. Instead they will simply return Joseph home, and then remove his ventilator, after which he will almost certainly die within a matter of minutes. This solution is unacceptable to the family.

“They need to do a tracheostomy,” said Dr. Paul Byrne, an Ohio neonatologist with nearly five decades of experience. “If the baby is stable otherwise, and has a tracheostomy, then the baby can be taken care of at home.”

Joseph Maraachli

London Health Sciences Centre defended their refusal to perform the tracheostomy, calling the procedure, which involves inserting a breathing tube through a tiny slit in the throat, “invasive,” and said it is “not a palliative procedure. It is frequently indicated for patients who require a long term breathing machine,” they wrote, “This is not indicated for Baby Joseph because he has a progressive neurodegenerative disease that is fatal.”

But Dr. Byrne said, “there’s no case” when a child is on a ventilator where the tracheostomy wouldn’t be indicated. He called the attempt to have the state remove Joseph’s ventilator “terrible, absolutely terrible,” and insisted that in his fifty years in neonatology he’s never removed a child’s ventilator. “I’ve never seen a time to turn off a ventilator. If a baby has a disease process that’s so bad that they’re going to die, then they die on the ventilator anyway. So you don’t have to stop the ventilator.”

He also criticized the common phrase “life support,” saying, “Life is either there or it’s not there. You don’t have to hold up the life. What we do in medicine are actions ... that support the vital activity of respiration. Assuming doctors can do something to support the vital activities, we ought to do them,” he explained. “And a tracheostomy ought to be done, and the baby ought to continue on the ventilator.”

Though doctors have said Joseph is in a “vegetative state,” Dr. Byrne called it a “made-up term” similar to the notion of “brain death,” which he said was invented “simply to get beating hearts for transplantation.” LifeSiteNews