…vance care planning. The Gundersen documents express a strong bias against long-term use of feeding tubes, BiPAPs and ventilators, discouraging health care consumers and medical professionals from using these life-sustaining devices except for short-term recovery and not as part of a viable disability lifestyle. The Not Dead Yet letter was signed by twenty-five individuals who have successfully used one or more of these devices for years, and in s…
…nsplant teams are more than willing to obtain organs from individuals with long-term disabilities, as highlighted by the case of Ruben Navarro. Even though a jury found no crime was committed in his death, the chaos and disregard for medical protocol associated with his final hours should embarrass any medical facility. Navarro was a young man with cognitive disabilities. At the time the story broke, I had one observation I shared on this blog tha…
…tment, information and advice that promotes help-seeking. (Source: https://www.afsp.org/content/download/1066/16814/file/recommendations.pdf) Over the last eight years, the activities of the Final Exit Network (FEN) – whose “exit guides” are claimed to have facilitated hundreds of suicides in the U.S. – have received national coverage. The greatest coverage has come from their role in the death of John Celmer of Georgia, clear of mouth cancer he…
…ouncil on Disability * National Council on Independent Living http://dredf.org/public-policy/assisted-suicide/ & http://notdeadyet.org/assisted-suicide-talking-points ¡Oposición a la legalización del suicidio asistido! ¡El suicidio asistido es mala medicina, una receta para el abuso! Los llamados salvaguardias son vanos. Demasiado peligroso: Muchas organizaciones de discapacidad y la Asociación Médica de Estados Unidos se oponen a la legalización…
…s the result of a complication of a heart transplant. The woman lived at a long term rehabilitation facility. The treatment providers at this facility informed my client’s parents, who were her conservators, that she had reached what they believed to be her maximum level of rehabilitation. Her parents decided that she would not want to live with her level of disability, and thus ordered that she receive only “comfort care.” That decision sentenced…
