Lynch, T. (2008) The Mental Capacity Act 2: patient advocacy and ethics. Nursing Times; 104: 43, 26–27.

This article discusses possible ethical and legal dilemmas in the interpretation of both the act and its code of practice.

From The Times

July 12, 2007

Melanie Reid

The doctor cleared of misconduct in hastening the deaths of two terminally ill babies called yesterday for more debate on end-of-life decisions.

Michael Munro emerged with his reputation untarnished after a ruling by the General Medical Council that he had not acted inappropriately and that his fitness to practise was unimpaired. The consultant neonatologist had been accused of “actions tantamount to euthanasia”. After the hearing he said that he was very relieved to have been cleared.

read more

Questions you may need to ask health-care staff

This comes from the SPUC web-site.

Helpful questions for the relatives,
friends and carers of elderly or disabled people who have entered hospital as
patients.

When elderly or disabled people enter hospital as patients, they may be in a very vulnerable state. Friends and relatives may be needed to act as their advocates, in an official or unofficial capacity. The health care staff, nurses, doctors and paramedical staff have different roles and responsibilities, but together they should ensure that the patient's needs are met. The patient's next of kin and close friends also have an important part to play. They should be consulted, when the healthcare team are formulating a care plan for the patient at the time of admission, and in relation to discharge planning.

read more

From Candis magazine. © Newhall Publications Limited - Candis November 2006

Read the original article here.

As some terminally ill people seek the right to die, David Cohen meets Gillian Gerhardi, who is determined to love life in spite of her disability

"Every day for three months, I plotted to kill myself. But I came through that dark time. I paint, I run a disabled theatre company, I live a full life"

Gillian Gerhardi watched the television coverage of Dr Anne Turner's controversial assisted suicide last January and felt a barely controllable anger rise in her belly. "Murderers!" she muttered. "We know all about those Dignitas people! They give you a 40-minute consultation and then pass you a lethal prescription —they are the lowest of the low."

read more

View the original here.

An Open Letter to Michael Schiavo

Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, and an eyewitness to Terri Schiavo’s final hours, released the following open letter to Michael Schiavo tonight. Fr. Pavone will read it to a worldwide audience on an internationally broadcast religious service on Sunday morning, March 26.

A year ago this week, I stood by the bedside of the woman you married and promised to love in good times and bad, in sickness and health. She was enduring a very bad time, because she hadn’t been given food or drink in nearly two weeks. And you were the one insisting that she continue to be deprived of food and water, right up to her death. I watched her face for hours on end, right up to moments before her last breath. Her death was not peaceful, nor was it beautiful. If you saw her too, and noticed what her eyes were doing, you know that to describe her last agony as peaceful is a lie.

read more

Doctors choosing which babies live or die isn't mercy. It is barbarism

Daily Mail (London)
Copyright 2006 Associated Newspapers Ltd
November 6, 2006 Monday

MELANIE PHILLIPS

THE Hippocratic Oath, the solemn declaration which acts as an ethical guide for the medical profession, says that a doctor must never harm his patient.

In particular, it pledges: 'To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.' Yet dismayingly, one of our most prestigious medical colleges is now proposing that doctors should indeed inflict the ultimate harm of intentional killing.

read more

WDC MEDIA NEWS

Christian News and Media Agency

Read the original article here.

2006-10-03 -- WDC Media News --

(AgapePress) - A Chicago doctor who specializes in geriatrics says attitudes are changing toward end-of-life healthcare choices as costs continue to rise.

A Kaiser Family Foundation report says healthcare costs are rising at twice the rate of inflation. Dr. David Fisher, a spokesman for the Christian Medical & Dental Associations (CMDA), says Medicare and insurance companies are covering costs for now, but he expects things may change as more of the population become senior citizens.

read more