The Massachusetts Medical Society, anticipating attempts to decriminalize physician assisted suicide, voted overwhelmingly to affirm its opposition to physician assisted suicide as well as its embracing of the principles of palliative care and patient dignity. Lynda Young, M.D., president of the Society, said that “Physicians of our Society have clearly declared that physician-assisted suicide is […]
physician’s role as healer … Read More »
… ” … we feel that love requires and asks for eternity — and it is impossible to accept that love is destroyed by death in a single moment.” But we ask ourselves: Why do we experience fear in the face of death? Why has humanity, to a large extent, never resigned itself to believing that
we fear death because … Read More »
… the Mystery … or I myself … ? As Hutter explains, magnanimity – natural hope – protects us from despair because it “anticipates a final and meaningful integration of all my experiences in a worthy narrative … even if I will not be its final narrator.” Those who pursue physician assisted suicide/euthanasia (and their
who will be the final narrator of my life … ? Read More »
… “Evidence suggests that legalized PAS will result in a greater number of suicides more generally (and not simply amongst the population who opt for legalized PAS). We will have great difficulty, on the one hand, giving our and medicine’s approval to suicide as the solution to complex problems at the end of life while,
the vicious cycle of suicide … Read More »
Imperative 2 To meet the real needs of the dying. What dying patients need first and foremost is a safe environment. They need to know that our care for them is not contingent upon something they do or do not do. They need to know that we care about them as persons worthy of dignity
safe … accompany … presence … Read More »
A subitanea morte, libera nos, Domine … “from a death that is sudden and unprepared for, deliver us, o Lord.” To be taken away suddenly, without being able to make oneself ready, without having had time to prepare – this is the supreme danger from which man wants to be saved. He wants to be
… “On television, death is presented as a thrilling spectacle tailor-made for alleviating the general boredom of life. In the last analysis, of course, the covert aim of this reduction of death to the status of an object is just the same as with the bourgeois taboo on the subject. Death is to be deprived
death trivialized … Read More »
“Liberalism and illuminism want to insinuate us in a world without fear; they promise to do away with every type of fear. They wish to eliminate every dependency on another and its intimate tension. This search for security is founded on a total auto-affirmation of the self which denies the risk of going out of
a world without fear … ? Read More »
Swetenham et al and Hegarty etal study the impact of refractory suffering on the interdisciplinary team. “Refractory suffering – that is, suffering that persists unrelieved despite all attempts by an interdisciplinary team to ameliorate it, is one of the most difficult and challenging aspects of palliative care practice. Its effects on clinicians have been documented.
the precarious nature of the team when challenges are faced … Read More »
“There is an infinitely better way to address the needs of people with serious illnesses [than physician-assisted suicide]. Our society should embrace what Pope John Paul II called “the way of love and true mercy”—a readiness to surround patients with love, support, and companionship, providing the assistance needed to ease their physical, emotional, and spiritual
