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The case of an 11-year-old Massachusetts girl, Haleigh Poutre, who suffered severe brain trauma last year as the result of abuse and is now in the custody of the state, has opened up discussion on withdrawing life support in pediatric patients who are diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state (PVS).
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Spirituality is recognized as a factor that many patients say contributes to their health; but now experts even some who previously had doubts are embracing patients and their own spirituality as an essential part of treatment.
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Though the Supreme Courts recent ruling in Gonzales v. Oregon says more about physicians authority to write prescriptions than about the right of states to pass laws permitting physician-assisted suicide (PAS), proponents of Oregons Death with Dignity law welcomed the ruling as a victory for physician discretion and patient autonomy.
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If a grateful patient presented you with one of his Aunt Marys special fruitcakes during the holidays, it was probably pretty obvious that such a gift presents no ethical dilemma.
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The nations largest hospital accreditation organization has issued a new warning aiming to reduce harmful incidents arising from inaccurate delivery of medications.
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The number of Oregon residents who ended their lives in 2005 by employing the states legal physician-assisted suicide law was twice the number that it was in 1998, the first year after the law was passed.
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Conflicts of interest created when health care professionals form ties with the pharmaceutical industry are a mixed bag, according to experts from the Veterans Health Administrations (VHA) National Center for Ethics in Health Care.
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Association addresses spirituality, medicine; Ontario transplant act triples organ donations; Patients recount ideal physician behaviors
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Just over a year ago, Terri Schiavo was the center of worldwide attention in several different roles severely brain-injured bulimic, daughter and wife trapped in a public family fight, fuel for debates over right to life vs. right to refuse, and subject of endless talk show discussion.
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Making end-of-life decisions for incapacitated patients most often falls to surrogates chosen by the patients, or to next of kin. But a recent review of the literature indicates that surrogates are only slightly better than physicians at making decisions that the patient would make if he or she were able.
