…e press at this time. We sincerely hope this allegation turns out to be untrue. And we are all hoping that the young girl pulls through this medical crisis. But if it is true, it’s time to demand that the media and parent “advocates” behave with more restraint and responsibility than they have in the coverage of the alleged murder of 3-year-old Katie McCarron by her mother. Coverage of the alleged murder of Katie McCarron has been dominated by dis…
…of comments I always make, but this time they’re in the context of a real news story instead of a softball treatment of FEN as some kind of “human interest” story: Stephen Drake of the Rochester, New York-based group Not Dead Yet, which is against assisted suicide, compared Final Exit Network and the wording in its training manual to a cult and said it’s hard to distinguish what the group does from murder. “What they do is reduce ambivalence,” he…
…1, but assisting others to kill themselves is. But since the Zurich clinic run by Dignitas was established in 1998 under Swiss laws that allow clinics to provide lethal drugs, British authorities have effectively turned a blind eye to Britons who go there to die. None of the family members and friends who have accompanied the 117 people living in Britain who have traveled to the Zurich clinic for help in ending their lives have been charged with a…
…or the most comprehensive investigative reporting on the life and death of Ruben Navarro. Ruben Navarro’s “medical lynching” occurred under the heart beating cadaver donor protocols. Unlike the more common organ harvesting done when someone is declared “brain dead,” the organs are removed shortly after a person undergoes cardiac arrest. This protocol is somewhat controversial, but many thoughtful people support it as ethical if it is done properly…
…ists, who have made death their life’s work. They study how to deliver bad news, and they do it again and again. They know secrets like who, as a rule, takes it better. They know who is more likely to suffer silently, and when is the best time to suggest a do-not-resuscitate order. Palliative care has become a recognized subspecialty, with fellowships, hospital departments and medical school courses aimed at managing patients’ last months. It has…
