The Alliance Defense Fund, which helped save Jesse Ramirez’s life, has won another one, at least for now. From its press release: On May 16, the patient’s husband filed the suit P.C. v. K. against the hospital and a doctor in order to keep the medical staff from removing his wife’s . . . . Continue Reading »
By Alex SchadenbergA neurologist from New York has agreed to testify as a medical expert on behalf of the family of Samuel Golubchuk an Orthodox Jewish man from Winnipeg Canada.Dr. Leon Zacharowicz agreed to work on the case pro-bono after being contacted by Agudath Israel of America. Dr. . . . . Continue Reading »
Ah, the days when “choice” seemed to be the end all and be all of bioethics. You say you want your profoundly disabled spouse’s feeding tube pulled so he dies slowly by dehydration? Choice! You say you want assisted suicide? Choice! You say you want your life extended with . . . . Continue Reading »
Peter Singer once again wants to shove human “non persons” out of the life boat. Not content with advocating infanticide, he also promotes futile care theory and suggests that patients with dementia be denied antibiotics and that other patients be denied life support based on . . . . Continue Reading »
I just learned about this blog, “Medical Futility,” that tracks futility care cases. The author is a law professor named Thaddeus Pope who, from what I have seen of his entries, clearly supports Futile Care Theory.In reading his entries, it validates my belief that the twin ideological . . . . Continue Reading »
I have been warning anyone who will listen about the coming huge policy fight over medical futility—what I call Futile Care Theory—that allows a doctor to refuse wanted life sustaining treatment when the doctor doesn’t believe that the quality of the patient’s life is worth . . . . Continue Reading »
I have been warning for years that Futile Care theorists were going to become increasingly bold in attempting to impose their quality of life judgments on unwilling patients and families. A very important futility case is ongoing right now in Winnipeg, Canada, in which a hospital insists that it has . . . . Continue Reading »
The current Futile Care Theory fuss in Canada, in which a hospital wants to remove Samuel Golubchuk’s respirator and feeding tube because he is diagnosed as unconscious, seems to be playing out in the polls as favoring the family that wants their father’s life-sustaining treatment to . . . . Continue Reading »
What a pleasant surprise: An opinion column in the New England Journal of Medicine opposes medical futility. Written by Harvard Medical School professor Robert D. Troug, M.D., it makes some very good points about the problem with even the best-intended futile care policies. Reacting to the Baby . . . . Continue Reading »
I am not happy: But my ire was raised before the ultimate failure of the bill to outlaw futile care theory in Texas. The “good” bill, which would have required hospitals to maintain treatment pending a transfer to another hospital would have breezed to passage, and in the process given a . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
