Euthanasia: There is Always A “Next Step”

Euthanasia: There is Always A “Next Step” » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: Euthanasia is not just a lethal act, but a deadly ideological appetite–one that is never satiated. Once killing is unleashed as a solution to suffering, activists will always want more.

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Ventilator Alarms Linked to Patient Deaths

Ventilator Alarms Linked to Patient Deaths - ABC News: More than 100 people have died in the past six years as a result of problematic alarms on ventilators, which are designed to beep warnings to caregivers when something goes wrong with the machine or the patient’s breathing.

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When care is worth it, even when the end is death

You’ve probably heard that we spend a lot of money on patients who die. It’s true: about one-tenth of the money spent on direct care goes to people who die each year. Among Medicare patients, the figure is much higher, about one-quarter.

You may be shocked by those statistics. What health care system would squander so many dollars on patients who don’t benefit? Or maybe you’re saddened. No humane system would subject patients to painful interventions and procedures that serve no purpose.

The idea that we waste money on terminal patients has caught on; the simplicity of the conceit makes it appealing to policy makers. And the data to support it keep coming, because it is easy for researchers to measure how much is spent on patients before they die.

. . . [C]aring for the sick means caring for people who may die. Providing care means reducing the chance they may die — not eliminating it. . . . [T]he policy conceit that spending money on patients who die is a waste overlooks the core purpose of health care — to prevent or forestall illness, disability and death among patients at risk of those outcomes.

It also overlooks a key correlation in health care. When people get sicker, they need more intensive — and expensive — health care services. But when they get sicker, they are also more likely to die. When I met my patient, I took him to the intensive care unit, the second-most-expensive place per minute in any hospital. The other place he went, twice, was the operating room — the most expensive place.

Healthy people, who are unlikely to die, are also very unlikely to find themselves in those settings. Thank goodness. Thus, spending will always be concentrated on people who are the sickest. When one examines spending on patients who die, dollars will be concentrated there, too.

. . . The more nuanced reality is that some aggressive treatment delivers value and is appropriate, even though some patients who receive such care die; other treatment is too aggressive and should be curtailed no matter what the short-term outcome. . . . The important thing is that it’s not all of one and it’s not all of the other.

Today the medical profession lacks a shared understanding of which patients are which. That gap must be addressed. It will be an excruciating task, and it will be politically noxious. Someone will again accuse officials of forming death panels. But leaving the distinctions to individual doctors leads to inequities, harm to patients, distrust in medical care and lawsuits; ignoring the problem should not be an option, either. NY Times

Research reveals shifting attitudes towards euthanasia

Research reveals shifting attitudes towards euthanasia - The Irish Times - Thu, Dec 01, 2011: Anthony Ozimic of the UK’s Society for Protection of the Unborn Child said euthanasia was underpinned by a pessimism about the value of life and the ability of society to respond adequately to the sick and the vulnerable. More on the conference

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Liverpool pathway to death

It’s Clegg who is isolated in the face of Cameron’s refusal to be subservient to Merkel and Sarkozy - Telegraph: A letter to the editor relates how a family was told "that Mother had been placed on the 'care pathway of the dying' and that she would not be given any food or water but would have regular sedation. We asked if she could be transferred to a private ward to be more comfortable in her final hours. . . . Her physician confirmed she was indeed terminally ill and no medication would be appropriate, only care. To everyone’s surprise, she began to improve." Mom lived to see her 100th birthday!

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Euthanasia Prevention Coalition makes oral arguments in assisted suicide case.

ALEX SCHADENBERG: Euthanasia Prevention Coalition makes oral arguments in assisted suicide case.: The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition is an Intervener in the Carter vs. Attorney General of Canada case that seeks to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. On December 14, the EPC legal counsel, Hugh Scher, will present legal arguments before the BC court.

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Why People Are Atheists and Why We Suffer

Why People Are Atheists and Why the Answers in Genesis Ministry Is So Important—Part 1 | Dr. Georgia Purdom's Blog: Famed atheist PZ Myers has had a series of recent posts on his blogs written by people explaining why they became atheists. Today’s excerpts focus on the issue of death and suffering.

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Sign of things to come? Britain’s austerity budget threatens cherished National Health Service

Health Squeeze: Britain’s austerity budget threatens cherished National Health Service - The Washington Post: When David Evans needed a hernia operation, the 69-year-old farmer became so alarmed by the long wait that he used an ultrasound machine for pregnant sheep on himself, to make sure he wasn’t getting worse.

It was only after repeated calls from himself, his doctor and his local member of parliament that the hospital performed the surgery, nearly a year after it was first requested. Under government guidelines, he should have started getting treatment within 18 weeks.

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UK hospitals warned over 'do not resuscitate' orders

NHS hospitals warned over 'do not resuscitate' orders | Society | The Guardian: Hospitals have been ordered to improve the way they record their decisions on whether or not to resuscitate patients amid fresh evidence of a failure to create a proper dialogue about those decisions with patients and relatives.

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The Xinjiang Procedure: Organ "donations" from political prisoners in China

The Xinjiang Procedure | The Weekly Standard: With the acceleration of Chinese medical expertise over the last decade, organs once considered scraps no longer went to waste. It wasn’t public knowledge exactly, but Chinese medical schools taught that many otherwise wicked criminals volunteered their organs as a final penance.

Right after the first shots the van door was thrust open and two men with white surgical coats thrown over their uniforms carried a body in, the head and feet still twitching slightly. The young doctor noted that the wound was on the right side of the chest as he had expected. When body #3 was laid down, he went to work.

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Massachusetts Medical Society Reaffirms Opposition to Physician-Assisted Suicide

Massachusetts Medical Society | MMS Physicians Reaffirm Opposition to Physician-Assisted Suicide: The Massachusetts Medical Society, the statewide association of physicians with more than 23,000 members, today voted to reaffirm its opposition to physician-assisted suicide, with its House of Delegates voting by a wide margin to maintain a policy the Society has had in effect since 1996.

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Don’t weaken euthanasia law based on rare cases, says doctor

Don’t weaken euthanasia law based on rare cases, says doctor | News | The Christian Institute: Tony Nicklinson, 57, suffers from ‘locked-in syndrome’ and wants a doctor to end his life. He is paralysed from the neck down after having a stroke in 2005.

But Dr Peter Saunders of the Care Not Killing alliance warns against weakening the law because it would endanger the lives of some of the nation’s most vulnerable members. He said we “need to realise that cases like Nicklinson’s are extremely rare and that hard cases make bad law. The overwhelming majority of people with severe disability – even with ‘locked-in syndrome’ – do not wish to die but rather want support to live."

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Mother, nurses charged in teen's death

Mother, nurses charged in teen's death: Makayla Norman was just 14-years-old when she died in March. At the time she was just 28 pounds. The coroner said malnutrition played a big factor in Makayla's death. She suffered from cerebal palsy and required constant care, which investigators said she did not get.

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Guardianship Attorney Indicted for Bilking $800,000 from Incapacitated Wards

Guardianship Attorney Indicted for Bilking $800,000 from Incapacitated Wards: A forensic examination revealed that more than $800,000 of proceeds belonging to Kenneally’s wards was diverted into orthrough the personal bank accounts of Tara Howie, a former paralegal of Kenneally’s guardianship practice.

Kenneally repeatedly overpaid bills on behalf of her wards, causing the issuance of refund checks that were ultimately diverted. To further conceal the theft scheme, mandatory accountings filed by Kenneally failed to disclose the existence of checks that were ultimately deposited into Howie’s personal accounts.

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Why do they look the other way?

Why do they look the other way? : Reader's Forum - Tampa Bay Newspapers: "This past Friday we did a wellness check on a member (as she had missed our meeting and dine out), only to find that she had mail in the box for a few days. I got no response from pounding on the door so we called 911. The police then found her inside and she had passed away a few days earlier.

"What does this say about our society? That we cannot look after our neighbors? Are we in such a rush that we do not notice anything anymore? How sad this is that a wonderful woman died this week at home alone."

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Desperate mom wins fight for son's care

Desperate mom wins fight for son's care | The Clarion-Ledger | clarionledger.com: After lying in a hospital bed for nearly two years with a severe brain injury, Mike Barnes of Mount Olive is finally receiving the rehabilitative care his mother fought for.

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Euthanasia Is Heroin

Euthanasia Is Heroin » Secondhand Smoke | A First Things Blog: Wesley Smith once called euthanasia, “heroin.” "My point was – and is – that once a culture starts mainlining mercy killing, it will always wants more. And now a Dutch euthanasia advocacy groups wants to create mobile euthanasia clinics."

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Joni: Lessons from cancer

"Never should we think we suffer for nothing, suffer alone."

New prenatal blood test developed in Grand Rapids

Risk of Down syndrome prompts couple to seek out new prenatal blood test developed in Grand Rapids | MLive.com: The new prenatal blood test for Down syndrome was developed by the Center for Molecular Medicine, a Grand Rapids-based subsidiary of biotechnology company Sequenom Inc. It was released in October in about 20 U.S. cities and will be made available nationwide after Jan. 1.

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Does the slippery slope to euthanasia make sense?

Does the slippery slope to euthanasia make sense? | NRL News Today: An argument is not like a bus where you can get off at any stop you, once you have accepted the premises you have to follow it to the end of the line. If voluntary euthanasia were accepted as a legitimate form of medical assistance in dying, then it would also be acceptable for noncompetent patients. An advocate of legalizing voluntary active euthanasia either must bite the bullet and also accept non-voluntary active euthanasia or must concede that if non-voluntary active euthanasia is regarded as too dangerous or unpalatable, then this is a valid and cogent reason for rejecting voluntary active euthanasia as well.

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Massachusetts Docs Reaffirms Opposition to Doctor-Prescribed Death

Massachusetts Medical Society’s House of Delegates Overwhelmingly Reaffirms Opposition to Doctor-Prescribed Death | NRL News Today: Over the weekend, the Massachusetts Medical Society’s House of Delegates voted overwhelmingly to retain the Society’s long-standing opposition to physician assisted suicide. The final tally was 178 to 56.

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Alzheimer's damage reversed by deep brain stimulation

Alzheimer's damage reversed by deep brain stimulation - health - 23 November 2011 - New Scientist: Brain shrinkage in people with Alzheimer's disease can be reversed in some cases - by jolting the degenerating tissue with electrical impulses. Moreover, doing so reduces the cognitive decline associated with the disease.

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How practices can make room for mobility

amednews: How practices can make room for mobility :: Nov. 28, 2011 ... American Medical News: More than 40 million Americans have a disability, and about 24% of them use mobility aids. Experts offer tips to improve care for these patients.

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Canada Revisits Old Debate On Assisted Suicide

Canada Revisits Old Debate On Assisted Suicide | Fox News: Confined to a wheelchair, in constant pain and unable to bathe without help, a 63-year-old grandmother has forced the issue of assisted suicide into Canadian courts for the third time in two decades.

Gloria Taylor has Lou Gehrig's disease, a rapidly progressive, invariably fatal neurological affliction. "It is my life and my body and it should be my choice as to when and how I die," she said before going to the British Columbia Supreme Court last Thursday to challenge Canada's ban on assisted suicide, a crime carrying a sentence of up to 14 years in prison.

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Championing good health for people with disabilities

Championing good health for people with disabilities : The Lancet: Dec 3, 2011, marks the International Day of Persons with Disabilities—a time to celebrate the diversity and contribution that people with disabilities make to society and to draw attention to their unmet needs.

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Pro-death group: "careful dying assistance in cases of completed life"

The self-chosen death of the elderly: "The purpose of this document is to describe the public debate in the Netherlands and to summarize the proposals for careful dying assistance in cases of completed life."

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Basic human rights of older people are abused in home care

Basic human rights of older people are abused in home care | BMJ: A highly critical report from a year long inquiry into the home care system in England has found evidence of “serious, systemic threats to the basic human rights of older people” who receive home care services.

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Hungarian police investigate 70 suspicious hospital deaths

Hungarian police investigate 70 suspicious hospital deaths - Telegraph: Hungarian police are investigating 70 suspicious deaths at a Budapest hospital following claims that patients were given lethal drug overdoses.

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NHS must come clean over use of 'death pathway'

NHS must come clean over use of 'death pathway' - Telegraph: A leading doctor has called for the [UK] NHS to reveal the true extent of the use of the controversial 'death pathway' after a report found up to half of families are not informed of its use.

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Tony Nicklinson deserves sympathy but hard cases make bad law

Tony Nicklinson deserves sympathy but hard cases make bad law | NRL News Today: Tony Nicklinson, 57, is paralysed from the neck down after suffering a stroke in 2005. He cannot speak or move anything except his head and eyes and communicates through nodding his head at letters on a perspex board or by using a computer which responds to eye movements.

The Melksham man sums up his life as ‘dull, miserable, demeaning, undignified and intolerable.’ His lawyers want a doctor actively ending his life to have a ‘common law defence of necessity’ against any possible murder charge.

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Majority of Irish medical students back euthanasia

Survey finds majority of Irish medical students back euthanasia | Irish News | IrishCentral: Irish society is moving towards an acceptance of euthanasia if a new survey of medical students is a barometer of national opinion. Almost 60 percent of those who took part in the research project were in favour of euthanasia, currently banned in Ireland.

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Grim reaper on wheels

Grim reaper on wheels: Dutch right-to-die group wants ‘mobile euthanasia teams’ | LifeSiteNews.com: The Dutch euthanasia advocacy group, “The Right To Die” (NVVE), is proposing a plan where “mobile teams of doctors and nurses … can help people to die in their own homes,” according to DutchNews.nl.

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And we wonder why medical costs are so high!?!

U.S. medical 'trash' saving lives abroad - CNN.com: Doctors will often prepare for surgical procedures by opening instrument and supply kits that contain up to 100 items. Many of these items, such as scalpels, needles or sponges, go unused; they're just not needed for that particular procedure. But because of government or hospital regulations in the United States, they are frequently thrown away, even when they are still wrapped.

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Do We Really Spend More and Get Less?

Do We Really Spend More and Get Less? | John Goodman's Health Policy Blog | NCPA.org: The conventional wisdom in health policy is that the United States spends far more than any other country and enjoys mediocre health outcomes. This judgment is repeated so often and so forcefully that you will almost never see it questioned. And yet it may not be true.

Indeed, the reverse may be true. We may be spending less and getting more.

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What Do You Think ‘Caused’ Your MS?

What Do You Think ‘Caused’ Your MS? - Multiple Sclerosis Blog: “Isn’t there a cure?” “You take drugs to help that?” “Does MS run in your family?” “Didn’t I just hear about a new MS treatment or drug on the news?” “What are your symptoms?” “What causes MS?”

These questions may have something to do with fear because MS is a disease of which so much is known yet so little is understood.

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