LifeEthics
end of life
Video on Emilio Gonzales
Austin Texas’ KVUE has several video news stories available on their website covering the story about Emilio Gonzales and the Texas Advance Directive Act. The report is in error because it says that the hospital makes these decisions, when the law allows the doctor to do so, and the ethics committee only determines whether the … 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
Answering 2
Jerri Lynn Ward responded to my response: First, I did not accuse YOU of breaking a federal law. If you are receiving information from someone in the hospital, THEY are breaking federal law and not you. Second, the ethics committee does have conflicts of interest whether you want to acknowledge it or not–and there ARE … Continue reading
Explaining
This is a re-write of a post I made as part of the conversation about Emilio Gonzales’s treatment at Wesley Smith’s Second Hand Smoke. I’m a family doctor because I have always seen the patient as part of the family and (ideally and sometimes not so ideally) the family as integral to the patient’s condition … 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
More on Texas end of life case
A reader, unfortunately, shows us the other extreme of the end of life debate. However, she missed the point entirely. Our discussion about the end of Emilio’s life is a debate about conscience, laws, and whether because doctors are licensed by the State, they abdicate their duty to act in the patient’s best interest. It … Continue reading
Leigh’s Disease (Long post on end of life and baby Emilio Gonzales)
(EDIT, May 31, 2014: It has come to my attention that this post is referenced in a book on bioethics. If you have come from that book, remember that (although I’ve done my best to be accurate) this is a blog, not a peer-reviewed scientific article. Be sure and read all the comments at the … Continue reading
“Back Alley Death” (“Physician Assisted Suicide” )
Oregon and Vermont – extremes on the map and extremes on medical ethics. But this is the first time that I’ve heard that doctors should give patients a deadly prescription to prevent a “back alley” death. How many of us really want our Family Doctor to be proficient in killing? Or, in over-riding his or … 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
There’s (Still) No “Futile Care Act” in Texas
I keep running across news articles like this one in the Dallas Morning News (free subscription required) which claim that Texas has some sort of “futile care” law. There is no such thing as a “Futile Care Law” in Texas and never has been. (Previous LifeEthics posts include several in April, 2006.) There is a … Continue reading
Visit WingRight
- “American Fiction,” the movie – and life
- Maternal Morbidity with Premature Rupture of Membranes
- Counterintuitive abortion report
- Paris at Café de la Paix
- Political, purposeful lies (Francis Collins & Anthony Fauci)
- Comprehensive review of Texas’ Heartbeat Act
- Biden to Ask OSHA to Mandate Vaccines at Businesses With 100 or More Workers
- Long Post Reviewing COVID19 Myths
- Afghanistan: Read this
- Conversation with January 6 protester
LifeEthics 