August 5, 2024
(New York Times) – Adult children are less likely to assist an aging stepparent, studies show. A growing “step gap” in senior care worries experts. Calculating the growth in stepfamilies isn’t simple, but a demographic analysis published last year estimated … Read More
August 5, 2024
(MIT Technology Review) – Ethicists say a “digital psychological twin” could help doctors and family members make decisions for people who can’t speak themselves. End-of-life decisions can be extremely upsetting for surrogates, the people who have to make those calls … Read More
July 25, 2024
(MedPage Today) – Critically injured trauma patients without insurance had a higher risk of being taken off life-saving care sooner than their insured counterparts, according to findings from a retrospective cohort study of more than 300,000 U.S. adults. After adjustment … Read More
July 8, 2024
(NPR) – About half of the nation’s 56 organ procurement organizations have already started using NRP and more are planning to start soon, according to the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations. But NRP has sparked an intense ethical debate. The … Read More
July 5, 2024
(The Atlantic) – Younger adults are being diagnosed with cancers at more advanced stages, and may suffer from more aggressive tumors than older adults. In my work caring for these patients, I have seen the ways their age influences how … Read More
July 4, 2024
(ProPublica) – Fetal death records are often missing cause of death, race and other crucial information. ProPublica found that the problem is only getting worse. From a public health perspective, fetal death certificates provide essential data that helps shed light … Read More
June 12, 2024
BMC Medical Ethics has new articles available online. Articles include: “Determining Capacity of People with Dementia to Take Part in Research: An electronic Survey Study of Researcher Confidence, Competence and Training needs” by Sarah Griffiths, Victoria Shepherd and Anna Volkmer … Read More
June 11, 2024
(The Baffler) – The stigma is not hard to understand: magazine features, books, and movies for two decades now have chronicled America’s drug problems, including the rapacious role of drug manufacturers like Purdue Pharma, which made OxyContin a household name … Read More
May 30, 2024
May 15, 2024
(UPI) – Some patients with traumatic brain injuries who died after life support was withdrawn may have recovered if given more time, a new study indicates. The findings of the study, conducted at Mass General Brigham in Boston, were published … Read More
May 15, 2024
May 6, 2024
(Axios) – As Medicare Advantage grows bigger and bigger, there’s one area the industry and regulators haven’t figured out how to make work yet: hospice. Why it matters: The end-of-life care option is the only Medicare service that can’t be … Read More
April 30, 2024
(The New Yorker) – A medical technology can keep people alive when they otherwise would have died. Where will it lead? Although ECMO technology is more than half a century old, it was in some ways still considered an experimental … Read More
April 29, 2024
(Acton Institute) – Finding better answers means asking better questions. Nowhere is this truer and more consequential than with questions surrounding matters of life and death. By asking better questions about care for the terminally ill, Dame Cicely Saunders (1918–2005)—a … Read More
April 16, 2024
(Associated Press) – A couple who owned a Colorado funeral home where authorities last year discovered 190 decaying bodies were indicted on federal charges that they misspent nearly $900,000 in pandemic relief funds on vacations, cosmetic surgery, jewelry and other … Read More
April 16, 2024
(The New Yorker) – On a recent afternoon, I chased my three-year-old daughter around the playground for an hour. When we returned home, she spread a jigsaw puzzle out on the floor and looked up expectantly. I liked the idea … Read More
April 12, 2024
(ABC News) – “Medical-aid in dying is not me choosing to die,” she says she told her 17-year-old grandson. “I am going to die. But it is my way of having a little bit more control over what it looks … Read More
April 5, 2024
(Undark) – Various commercial products known as “griefbots” create a simulation of a lost loved one. Built on artificial intelligence that makes use of large language models, or LLMs, the bots imitate the particular way the deceased person talked by … Read More
March 25, 2024
(New York Times) – “When I was present at the bedside of the dying, I was confronted by what I had seen and tried so hard to forget from my childhood. I saw dying patients reaching and calling out to … Read More
March 25, 2024
March 22, 2024
(NPR) – Seven states have legalized human composting to date, including Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, Vermont, and New York. It took California lawmakers three tries to pass a law to do the same, but it won’t take effect until 2027. … Read More
March 13, 2024
March 8, 2024
(Chicago Tribune) – For that reason, and others, we believe that Illinois should not pass this legislation and join the 11 jurisdictions (California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Montana, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington) that have … Read More
March 6, 2024
(The Economist) – In fiction, hard-pressed pathologists presented with a corpse are able to take a bite of their sandwich and instantly pronounce a time of death. Reality is, of course, a lot messier, and the results—or lack of them—can … Read More
March 4, 2024
(Maryland The Daily Record) – Lawmakers have tabled a fiercely debated bill that would have granted terminally ill Maryland residents the right to end their lives, a setback to supporters who hoped it would finally pass this year. Senate President … Read More
