Koreans Debate End Of Life Issues

Pro-death ideas come to South Korea.

New survey will gauge public opinion on euthanasia

When doctors removed a respirator from a 76-year-old woman known only as Kim , it sparked a national debate in South Korea about choosing to die, or not, and who can make that choice.

The doctors’ decision led to a landmark Supreme Court case in 2009, the first time it had been called to rule on whether to maintain life support for a patient in a vegetative state, as Kim was at the time, although doctors at the Protestant Severance Hospital in Seoul continued to feed their patient. The court order only referred to life support for the respirator, which doctors had originally refused to turn off.

Miraculously, Kim lasted 202 more days and died in January 2010. more

Here's How The Media Supports The Pro-Death Position

Eres a media piece completely in the tank for the pro-deathers, trotting out all the usual arguments.

Eres a media piece completely in the tank for the pro-deathers, trotting out all the usual arguments.

Here's a media piece completely in the tank for the pro-deathers masquerading as a thoughtful "discussion" of the issues.

 The Choice of Life or Death

Doctor assisted suicide, death by choice or dignified death, whatever you chose to call it, it's an issue many are fighting for -- the freedom to choose when and how you die.

It emerges as the most controversial cultural issue in a recent Gallup Poll. Americans are divided 45% to 48% over whether it is morally acceptable or morally wrong.

One Lincoln couple made that choice.

"It's going to be a process, but I get it and I am so ok with it and I am happy they are together," said Kim Miller, the daughter of Carol and Ray Miller. more

Argentina: More Patient Rights At The End Of Life

The article title is somewhat confusing. What the Argentinians have done is make clear in law patient’s rights at the end of life.

Argentine Senate approves 'dignified death' law

Argentina's senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a "dignified death" law giving terminally ill patients and their families more power to make end-of-life decisions.

The law passed by a vote of 55 to zero, with 17 senators declaring themselves absent. It passed the lower house last year.

Now Argentine families won't have to struggle to find judges to order doctors to end life-support for people who are dying or in a permanent vegetative state. Getting such approval can be very difficult in many countries, particularly in Latin America, where opposition from the Roman Catholic church still runs strong. more

It's The Pain Management, Stupid

Here’s a great piece on why assisted suicide and euthanasia are not the answer to those who are suffering at the end of life. Pain management works, it’s just not practiced as much as it needs to be.

Authentic Compassion: Pain Treatment at the End of Life

In 1994, Dr. Charles Cleeland authored a study that found that 42% of cancer patients with pain were receiving inadequate therapy for their pain. This led to the Health and Human Services (HHS) guidelines for more aggressive pain management and the ubiquitous question about your level of pain “on a scale of 1 to 10” every time you visit the doctor for any reason.

The interest in pain management was actually a response to the push for legalized assisted suicide. Advocates of assisted suicide claimed that uncontrolled pain justified aiding cancer patients to end their lives. At the time, there were proclamations by medical experts that 90% of pain could be easily treated and there was no risk of addiction for those who were actually in pain.

So where are we nearly two decades later? more

Confusing End Of Life Issues Is No Help At All

This is a very confusing report – I’m not aware of anyone who opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia suggesting that palliative care and palliative sedation are “euthanasia.” If there are people who are making such charges, they are pretty ignorant of the issues they’re talking about.

End-of-life care: Pain control carries risk of being called a killer

Three decades after hospice emerged as the standard of care for terminally ill patients, the end-of-life treatments that palliative medicine physicians provide are frequently referred to as murder, euthanasia and killing.

More than half of hospice and palliative medicine physicians say patients, family members and even other health professionals have used those terms to describe care they recommended or implemented within the last five years, according to a nationwide survey of 663 palliative care doctors in the March Journal of Palliative Medicine. more