Medical Ethics Advisor – December 1, 2006
December 1, 2006
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Death in the ED: Heart attack after two-hour wait termed 'homicide'
The death of a 49-year-old woman from a heart attack after waiting two hours to be seen in the emergency room of a Waukegan, IL, hospital has been ruled a homicide following a grand jury inquest. -
Should PVS patients be medical research subjects?
Discussion about the merits and drawbacks of using patients in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) as subjects for experiments in xenotransplantation gathered some notice. -
Debate over change to 'Death with Dignity' act
The state with the landmark statute allowing dying patients to ask their physicians for medication they can choose to take to end their lives has changed the term for the act from "suicide" to "death". -
Hospitals telling smokers that 'it's time to quit'
Patients hospitalized at University of Rochester (NY) Medical Center might not be able to kick the habit during their hospitalization, but staff will no longer be aiding their addiction. -
Pulling supplemental oxygen creates struggle
The right of competent, informed patients to reject lifesaving therapies has been affirmed by courts at every level, but a group of ethicists at the University of Pennsylvania wondered whether the line is as clear when it comes to supplemental oxygen. -
Scientists quitting NIH over conflict of interest rules
Ethics rules aimed at curbing conflicts of interest of National Institutes of Health (NIH) employees should have a positive impact on public opinion of NIH credibility, a survey of agency employees revealed. -
Medical societies weigh in on case of New Orleans doc
Attorney General Charles Foti has stated that he believes his office has uncovered enough evidence for the Orleans Parish District Attorney to charge three health care providers with murder in the deaths of four patients. -
Nurse presence growing on hospital ethics committees
While it was not always so, nurses are now members of ethics committees in most hospitals, and are participating in consults where they traditionally were not.