…asked if Not Dead Yet could be her surrogate. She said that she couldn’t trust her family. We’re not in a position to do that, but the need is there. This morning, I also mentioned the recent research showing that roughly half of doctors just assume that an advance directive always means a refusal of treatment. And I talked about futility policies, which allow doctors to overrule advance directives which say that the patient wants certain life-su…

…rather than substantively addressed. We urge both the Ethics Committee and the OPTN Board to refrain from acting on the pending proposals before you have carried out your duty to protect the interests of potential organ donors as well as safeguard public trust in the integrity of the organ procurement and transplantation system. Please contact me with any questions you may have and, above all, create a system that all of us can trust to value our…

…stee of his estate several months earlier, and had deeded his home to the trust. Middleton had instructed that the home be rented until the real estate market improved. Instead, Sawyer listed the property for sale two days after Middleton’s death. When the home sold, the proceeds were deposited into the accounts of Sawyer’s businesses. In Oregon, there is no investigation of assisted-suicide deaths, even with suspicious circumstances such as those…

…abuse cases in the United States annually, many are not. Once the lethal drugs are in the home, the drugs might be administered with or without the individual’s consent. Even if they struggled against it, who would know?   When we’re talking about changing public policy that impacts both the health care system that everyone depends on, and the real world of families that are not necessarily all loving and supportive, we have an obligation to thin…

…s – routinely proceed without their wife’s knowledge or consent. She says true pacts occur in perhaps one half of 1 per cent of elder homicide-suicides. Of the hundreds of homicide-suicide deaths in the US each year, the rate amongst over 55s is twice that of under 55s. Homicide-suicides now account for about three per cent of all suicides, and about 12 per cent of homicides in the older population. “One of our most distressing findings is evidenc…