Issues in Law & Medicine articles from December 1992

Issues in Law & Medicine archives from December 1992

Federal policy on forgoing treatment or care: contradictions or consistency?
December 22, 1992... Attempting to discuss federal policy in almost any area of law is a tricky business at best. However, when the area is as controversial and eclectic as forgoing or withholding medical care, discerning federal policy, as though there is a...

The case for euthanasia: a humanistic perspective.
December 22, 1992... I wish to present the moral case for voluntary beneficent euthanasia, both active and passive. I also wish to outline an ethical theory in defense of it. Secular humanists are often challenged for defending euthanasia, but I submit that there...

Once more unto the breach: the right to die - again.
December 22, 1992... I live in one of those rare enclaves in America, an academic town, a place that is in America but not quite of it. It is in places of this kind that one was more likely to encounter that macabre spectacle that took place in my own town of...

Altruistic humanism and voluntary beneficent euthanasia.
December 22, 1992... I wish to begin with a passage from the writings of Mahatma Gandhi: I see there is an instinctive horror of killing living beings under any circumstances whatever. For instance, an alternative has been sug- gested in the shape of confining...

Voluntary active euthanasia: the next frontier?
December 22, 1992... I am not a legal expert on voluntary active euthanasia; I approach the subject as a journalist. I have watched the media report stories about individuals with severe disabilities who come into the public eye because of a wish that their lives...

Voluntary active euthanasia: the next frontier: impact on the indigent.
December 22, 1992... Legal change permitting competent, terminally ill adults the right to request and receive the aid of a physician to end their lives is indeed the next frontier. Aiding, abetting, and assisting a suicide is now a crime in nearly every state of...

State v. McKown. (parents rely on spiritual treatment for diabetic child) (Minnesota)
December 22, 1992... HELD: Where the state has clearly expressed its intention to permit good faith reliance on spiritual treatment and prayer as an alternative to conventional medical care, it cannot, without giving defendants fair notice of prohibited...

Werth v. Taylor. (medical necessity and refusal to allow blood transfusion) (Michigan)
December 22, 1992... HELD: Only the contemporaneous refusal of treatment by a fully informed, competent adult patient is sufficient to override evidence of medical necessity, and no action lies for battery for treating a patient without such refusal. Two...

Nutrition and hydration: moral and pastoral reflections. (report of the Committee for Pro-Life Activities, National Conference of Catholic Bishops, April 1992)
December 22, 1992... Committee for Pro-Life Activities National Conference of Catholic Bishops April 1992 Introduction Modern medical technology seems to confront us with many questions not faced even a decade ago. Corresponding changes in medical...

When Is It Right to Die?
December 22, 1992... Tada, Joni Eareckson. When Is It Right to Die? Grand Rapids, Mich. :Zondervan Publishing House, 1992. At some point, a family will stand by the bedside of a dying member and face strange and cold questions: Can't we just let her die? What...

Euthanasia Is Not the Answer: A Hospice Physician's View.
December 22, 1992... Cundiff, David. Euthanasia Is Not the Answer: A Hospice Physician's View. Totowa, N.J.: Humana Press, 1992. Can euthanasia be accepted as a reasonable choice? Or must a patient's pain and suffering be prolonged in order to preserve life,...

Doctors' Decisions: Ethical Conflicts in Medical Practice.
December 22, 1992... Dunstan, G.R., and E.A. Shinebourne, eds. Doctors' Decisions: Ethical Conflicts in Medical Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. In this book practitioners in a wide variety of specialties describe the making of...

Assessment of Family Violence.
December 22, 1992... Ammerman, Robert T., and Michel Hersen, eds. Assessment of Family Violence. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1992. Almost every clinician at some time faces the challenge of evaluating individuals and families involved in domestic...