Category: End-of-Life Care

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Refusing unwanted medical treatment–Part 2

In Part 1, I provided an actual case of unwanted life-sustaining medical treatment (LSMT), listed Professor Pope's "Twelve Leading Causes of Unwanted Life-Sustaining Treatment," gave the causes of action that may be available for unwanted LSMT, and briefly discussed Physician's Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) and other similar documents used in various states.  Here, in Part 2, I delve further into Professor Pope's research on unwanted LSMT. (Continue reading ...)
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Refusing unwanted medical treatment–Part 1

An important right in managing end-of-life medical treatment is the right to make our own decisions, either directly or through a surrogate, about when to refuse unwanted treatments. No one has done more to call attention to the right to reject unwanted medical treatment than Thaddeus Pope, who tracks litigation against medical providers who treat patients in ways the patients do not want to be treated, in direct violation of their expressed written choices, their verbally-expressed decisions, or the decisions of their medical agents. (Continue reading ...)
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Whose Life is it Anyway?

Since the 1970s there have been debates about whether “patients” have the right to refuse various forms of life-saving or life-sustaining medical treatment, ranging from blood transfusions to ventilators and feeding tubes.  More recently the debate has moved into the area of dementia and which, if any, kinds of treatment may be refused under the terms of a directive written in advance of loss of decision-making capacity.  The issue of forced feeding is addressed by several articles in the July/August issue (48:4) of the Hastings Center Report, one of the nation’s preeminent bioethics publications. (Continue reading ...)
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One man’s experience using Washington’s PAD law

A Washington state man, Aaron McQ, described his illness (a rare form of ALS) as "terrifying . . . like waking up every morning in quicksand."  He agreed to discuss his experience with Kaiser News to help provide more understanding about how users feel after qualifying for PAD.  Over 3,000 terminally ill residents in the US have used PAD laws since Oregon's first took effect twenty years ago. This is one man's experience. (Continue reading ...)
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End-of-Life Care: The issues we face

The American Psychological Association (APA) has prepared and published an "End-of-Life Care Fact Sheet," making it available as an open source document. It tries to answer the question – What are older adults' mental health needs near the end of life? The document, prepared by Sharon Valente, RN, PhD, FAAN, in collaboration with the other members of the APA Ad Hoc Committee on End-of-Life Issues, addresses many issues of concern to FEN members and provides references for the information and opinions it offers. While the APA does not take a position on assisted dying, such as the laws that allow a physician to provide a lethal prescription to a terminally ill patient, as can be done in Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, Colorado, and the District of Columbia (and is permitted in Montana by court decision), it does recognize the many perspectives on the issue of hastened death or rational suicide that exist in the US population. (Continue reading ...)
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