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Futility

This category contains 14 posts

Ethics statments from the AMA and CMDA

Last month, I wrote about the Christian Medical and Dental Association’s ethics statements. There’s a comment about them in last weeks’ CMDA “News and Views.” See Dr. Robert Scheidt’s comments, with the links to the three ethics statements that were approved at this year’s CMDA House of Directors. This week, we have the NEJM article … Continue reading

NEJM comments on Texas "futile care"

The New England Journal of Medicine has a “Perspective” article commenting on the Emilio Gonzales case in Austin, Texas It’s available free online, and there’s an audio interview with the author. The comments are very specific on the ethics of the case, and the author does a good job of outlining the Texas Advance Directive … Continue reading

AMA on Texas Advance Directive (Futile Treatment)

The AMANews magazine, a weekly print newspaper for the members of the American Medical Association, has an article in the May 14 edition, available on line now. The excerpt is free here, but full content is only available to members and paid subscribers. Since LifeEthics readers have been following the progress of the legislation and … Continue reading

End of Life Compromise Texas

According to the Houston Chronicle, the Senate Health and Human Services passed a compromise bill to amend the Texas Advance Directive Act to extend the time lines for end of life care when the doctor believes that technological intervention is inappropriate. The new committee substitute for Senator Dr. Duell’s bill 439 was introduced by the … Continue reading

Do No Harm 101 (Wesley Smith, Catholic Bishops and Futile Care)

Wesley Smith is covering Texas’ legislature’s debate over our Advance Directive Act. Yesterday, he accused the 24 Bishops of Texas of practicing “Futile Care Theory,” which he defines as the decision to limit care by anyone other than a family member or patient. (In other words, here, he says that Terri Schiavo was not a … Continue reading

Answer 3

From Jerri: Your personalizing of this makes no sense. It’s as if you are saying that–if the medical community’s ethics are questioned in any way–that’s an attack on the community. We live in a free society and everyone is entitled to their opinion on what medical ethics should be. That said, the medical profession’s opinion … Continue reading

“Living Life’s End”

The title is from a 2005 essay by Gilbert Meilaender in First Things. Not surprisingly, Dr. Meilaender speaks with much more clarity than I ever could in discussing the sort of dilemma that we face when considering the baby, Emilio Gonzales, and the treatment vs. the care he is to receive from his doctors, his … Continue reading

Debate On Ethics

After several days of discussion about a baby that Texas lawyer Jerri Ward asked Wesley Smith to blog about on Secondhand Smoke, I have been asked “How can you be a doctor and not know this about what passes for ethics nowadays?” Because I have a different understanding “about what passes for ethics nowadays.” I … Continue reading

Not a Texas “Futile Care” Case?

I think our heart strings are being pulled for the wrong reasons in the case of a Dallas woman. I don’t believe that the case is covered by the Texas Advanced Care Act. I wonder whether the doc was forced to admit that Mrs. Webster is a “long term care patient” that has a chronic … Continue reading

More on the Texas Advance Directive Act (NOT “Futile”)

Jerri Lynn Ward and I have been discussing the Act, here. I found out that Dr. Findley has done some good deeds, too. Here’s a story about a patient he helped. Middleton said she wasn’t thinking of an aneurysm when she scheduled her September physical. She just wanted to get checked out before switching jobs … Continue reading

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