Virginia: Easing Standards for Declaration of Brain Death – and Increasing Errors

…” regarding people who clearly were not (e.g. Haleigh Poutre and Dorothy Livadas) in some high-profile cases, it’s clear that at least some medical professionals don’t see much harm in erroneously labeling someone as “brain dead” if they think the person doesn’t have much of a chance of a “meaningful” recovery. If people are declared brain dead under the new rules who would not have been under the old ones, it might also result in a small increase…

Coleman and Drake in Hastings Center ‘Bioethics Forum’ – Bill Peace, Bioethics, and Being Pushed to Choose Death

…ries will appear over the next week or so, with response from Peace. We welcome comments and additional posts from readers. Here is the first commentary, by Diane Coleman and Stephen Drake, of Not Dead Yet. Here is the opening to the essay/response Diane and I wrote: It’s difficult for us to believe that Bill Peace’s story would really surprise anyone entrenched in bioethics and “end of life” issues. Anyone paying close attention to various news s…

Three recommended reads: Bill Peace on “Ashley and Me,” L Syd M Johnson critque of Jacob Appel on PVS and April Michelle Herndon on the “Magic Pill” Question

…medical and legal confidence diagnose patients. Read the rest of Johnson’s essay at: http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Bioethicsforum/Post.aspx?id=4789&blogid=140#ixzz0tCt8Jn3L The “Magic Pill” Question was written by April Michelle Herndon. If you don’t recognize the reference, the “magic pill” question is about one would take a pill that would change that which makes you “different” – people with disabilities get posed this question quite often….

A “Must-Read” From Ezekiel Emanuel on Better “End of Life” Care

…t and cut your life short.”[39] As The New York Times mentioned,[40] conservative pundits were comparing the Nazi T4 euthanasia program to Obama’s policies as far back as November 2008, calling them “America’s T4 program—trivialization of abortion, acceptance of euthanasia, and the normalization of physician assisted suicide.”[41] Here’s a summary of what fact-checkers had to say about the allegations: The nonpartisan Politifact.com Web site descr…

Media Alert – Looks Like “Dr. Oz” Is Planning Slanted Show on Assisted Suicide

…nteresting contradictions. On the one hand, he’s the director of the Cardiovascular Institute and Complementary Medicine Program at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and has received numerous awards for his medical work. On the other hand, as the wikipedia entry states, he was “awarded” the “2011 James Randi Educational Foundation Media Pigasus Award, which the foundation states is for promoting “nonsense”. The foundation complained about Oz’s suppor…