March 13, 2024
End of Life
March 8, 2024
Editorial: ‘Right to Die’ Debate Comes to Illinois. Both Sides Have Merit, But We Would Vote No.
(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
A New Technique to Work Out a Corpse’s Time of Death
(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
‘It’s Certainly Over’: Aid-in-Dying Bill Falters in Md. Senate for This Year
(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
February 26, 2024
Resurrecting Loved Ones as AI ‘Ghosts’ Could Harm Your Mental Health
(New Scientist) – Resurrecting deceased loved ones using artificial intelligence could harm mental health, create dependence on the technology and even spur a new religion, researchers have warned. (Read More)
February 21, 2024
A New Edition of The Linacre Quarterly Is Now Available
February 19, 2024
A Year After Jimmy Carter Entered Hospice Care, Advocates Hope His Endurance Drives Awareness
(ABC News) – Since Jimmy Carter entered hospice care at his home in south Georgia one year ago, the former U.S. president has celebrated his 99th birthday, enjoyed tributes to his legacy and lost his wife of 77 years. (Read … Read More
February 15, 2024
He Was Killed in a School Shooting. Now AI Has Him Speaking Again.
(Wall Street Journal) – Joaquin Oliver was killed in the Parkland school shooting. Now with AI, the 17-year-old’s voice can be heard again. WSJ’s Joanna Stern sat down with Joaquin’s parents to find out how and why they are preserving … Read More
February 14, 2024
When Valentine’s Day Meets Ash Wednesday
(The Atlantic) – Death reminds us of the limits of romantic love, but it also sets romantic love free. It allows love to take its place alongside other goods, some that last and others that are fleeting. Death brings a … Read More
February 12, 2024
How Do You Live While Your Brother Is Dying? ‘Suncoast’ Is a Teen Take on Hospice
(NPR) – A new film streaming on Hulu considers a subject that’s sometimes in the news, but not often in entertainment: hospice end-of-life care. Suncoast is writer-director Laura Chinn’s fictional account of her life in the early 2000s as a … Read More
February 12, 2024
Debate Simmers Over When Doctors Should Declare Brain Death
(NPR) – The debate is focused on the Uniform Determination of Death Act, a law that was adopted by most states in the 1980s. The law says that death can be declared if someone has experienced “irreversible cessation of all … Read More
February 9, 2024
More States Are Considering Bills Allowing Medically Assisted Death This Year
(Axios) – A push to let physicians prescribe life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients is getting major attention in statehouses this year, with lawmakers in 19 states considering bills to allow the practice. The big picture: Despite continuing skepticism from … Read More
February 5, 2024
How the Funeral Industry Got the FTC to Hide Bad Actors
(Wall Street Journal) – Unethical funeral homes have exploited grieving customers for decades. What consumers don’t know is that many of the industry’s bad actors have been hidden from the public thanks to a sweetheart deal struck between the Federal … Read More
February 2, 2024
A New Edition of The New England Journal of Medicine Is Now Available
January 9, 2024
How We Remember the Dead by Their Digital Afterlives
(Nature) – The Digital Departed: How We Face Death, Commemorate Life, and Chase Virtual Immortality Timothy Recuber NYU Press (2023) Many of us will have turned to the Internet to grieve and remember the dead — by posting messages on … Read More
January 3, 2024
Should Patients Be Allowed to Die from Anorexia?
(New York Times) – Naomi’s therapist had printed out an article for her to read. It was called “Medical Futility and Psychiatry: Palliative Care and Hospice Care as a Last Resort in the Treatment of Refractory Anorexia Nervosa,” published in … Read More
December 28, 2023
Doctors Are Pushing Hollywood for More Realistic Depictions of Death and Dying on TV
(NPR) – We’ve seen it so many times. A young, handsome man rushed into the emergency room with a gunshot wound. A flurry of white coats racing the clock: CPR, the heart zapper, the order for a scalpel. Stat! Then … Read More
December 28, 2023
What Is Hospice Care? 6 Myths About This End-of-Life Option
(NPR) – Many assumed the decision meant that Carter wouldn’t be alive for much longer. But contrary to popular belief, hospice care isn’t necessarily only for people who have just a few days to live, nor does it mean giving … Read More
December 21, 2023
How America’s Patchwork Death Notification System Leaves Families in the Dark
(NBC News) – Death investigation experts say these mistakes are preventable. Coroners and medical examiners, they say, should adopt detailed written protocols for identifying and contacting next of kin. And when exhaustive efforts to find families fall short, experts say … Read More
December 12, 2023
CPR Can Be Lifesaving for Some, Futile for Others. Here’s What Makes the Difference
(NPR) – Recently, I wrote about the dark side of CPR. Despite a common misperception that CPR can rescue almost anyone from the brink of death, most people that receive it don’t survive. Of those that do, many sustain devastating … Read More
November 27, 2023
Hospices Can’t Handle the Growing Number of Patients Who Need Wound Care
(STAT News) – Today, our nation faces a meteoric rise in metabolic disease that is showing up in end-of-life care in a devastating way. The increasing prevalence of metabolic disease combined with an aging population and a critical shortage of … Read More
November 27, 2023
Carter’s Journey Highlights Tough Questions About When to Choose Hospice
(Washington Post) – The death of former first lady Rosalynn Carter on Sunday, and the survival of her husband, former president Jimmy Carter, have exposed one of the most achingly difficult questions faced by people with life-threatening illness: when to … Read More
November 21, 2023
The Race to Optimize Grief
(Vox) – While mimicking conversational style is just one of the many uses of the popular generative chatbot ChatGPT, there’s a niche yet growing slate of platforms that use deep learning and large language models to re-create the essence of … Read More
November 17, 2023
The Biggest Questions: What Is Death?
(MIT Technology Review) – Just as birth certificates note the time we enter the world, death certificates mark the moment we exit it. This practice reflects traditional notions about life and death as binaries. We are here until, suddenly, like … Read More
November 8, 2023
Parents of a Terminally Ill Baby Lose UK Legal Battle to Bring Her Home
(Associated Press) – A judge at Britain’s High Court ruled Wednesday that life support for a terminally ill 8-month-old baby should be withdrawn in a hospice or hospital, despite efforts by the infant’s parents and the Italian government to transport … Read More
