Category Archives: News

Sharing doctor’s remarks only also boosts treatment compliance, researchers find. “The study is very important because it shows [OpenNotes] did not create a significant burden for doctors, and it helps patients to understand better the diagnosis and the advice of … Continue reading →

When there is a plane crash in the U.S. even a minor one, it makes headlines. There is a thorough federal investigation, and the tragedy often yields important lessons for the aviation industry. Pilots and airlines thus learn how to … Continue reading →

Leading the charge is the Independent Payment Advisory Board, governed by 15 “experts” appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Established to control Medicare costs, IPAB possesses the raw power to force Congress to legislate via its “fast … Continue reading →

As of Monday, Medicare will start fining hospitals that have too many patients being readmitted within 30 days of discharge due to complications. The penalties are part of a broader push under President Barack Obama’s health care law to improve … Continue reading →

Imagine that your father, age 85, has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and given only three months to live. Fortunately, he is still well enough to walk, and finds himself one night near a tall bridge…Suddenly, he sees his … Continue reading →

Dr. Marty Makary has just published the book, “Unaccountable: What Hospitals Won’t Tell You and How Transparency Can Revolutionize Health Care.” It outlines the extent to which doctors and hospitals suppress objective data about how patients fare in their hands … Continue reading →

The New York Organ Donor Network pressured hospital staffers to declare patients brain dead so their body parts could be harvested — and even hired “coaches” to train staffers how to be more persuasive, a bombshell lawsuit charged yesterday. New … Continue reading →

The number of doctor-assisted suicide cases reported in the Netherlands grew by 559 between the years of 2010 and 2011, a commission says.  The Euthanasia Commission, set up by the government, found that doctor-reported cases made up about 2.7 percent … Continue reading →

Suicides are up in Alaska, but other violent deaths from both assaults and accidents are way down, according to a new report from the Alaska Division of Public Health. Fairbanks Daily News Miner “Suicides up, but other violent deaths have … Continue reading →

The Massachusetts chapter [of the National Association of Social Workers] board members met with proponents and opponents of Question 2 and decided to express “strong support” for the initiative petition after their deliberations. Wicked Local (News from Wareham Courier, Wareham, … Continue reading →

Of course, careful contemplation of this ballot question forces each of us to confront our own notions about individual freedom, our level trust in the medical profession…But there is a more practical consideration as well, and that is, just how … Continue reading →

More Americans now commit suicide than die in car crashes, making suicide the leading cause of injury deaths. Suicide is now the first cause of injury deaths, followed by car crashes, poisoning, falls and murder. In 2009, more than 37,000 … Continue reading →

President Barack Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act, also known as Obamacare, will seriously impact the health care and health insurance of 40 million American seniors on Medicare.  I am one of them.  Those of us older than 65 represent 13 … Continue reading →

Independent MSP Margo MacDonald is to bring back proposals to allow people the legal right to assisted suicide. Ms. McDonald’s bill would allow people whose lives became intolerable through a progressive degenerative condition, a trauma or terminal illness to seek … Continue reading →

We need death panels….No one wants to lose an aging parent. And with price out of the equation, it’s natural for patients and their families to try every treatment regardless of expense or efficacy. But that imposes an enormous societal … Continue reading →

The Massachusetts Medical Society opposes this ballot question.  On November 6, Massachusetts voters will have the opportunity to vote on Question 2, “Prescribing Medication to End Life.”  We are opposed to Question 2 for these reasons: Massachusetts Medical Society “Question … Continue reading →

Relatives allege doctor at NHS hospital in Kent added “do no resuscitate” order to man’s notes on basis of his disability… After he was discharged, a carer unpacking his bag found a DNR form. “It was folded in four in … Continue reading →

Older adults are understandably anxious about the political sniping over the future financing of Medicare. That is precisely the intention of the presidential campaigns. Yet the cross-fire over who will cut Medicare by how much sidesteps a critical issue about … Continue reading →

….Massachusetts is the last, best hope for advocates of doctor-prescribed suicide to break the Pacific Northwest quarantine.  What happens if the Massachusetts ballot effort passes in November? National Review Online “Hippocrates’ Last Stand” September 20, 2012 View

A gravely ill prisoner serving a long jail sentence has become the first inmate to die under Belgian euthanasia laws introduced 10 years ago.  Last year, some 1133 cases — mostly for terminal cancer — were recorded, about one percent … Continue reading →

Four days passed from the time William Van Note was shot and stabbed in his Lake of the Ozarks home until he died.  Somewhere, during that time, authorities say, his daughter, Susan Elizabeth “Liz” Van Note, a Lee’s Summit attorney, … Continue reading →

The Liberal Democratic minister, who is responsible for suicide strategy with the Department of Health, followed his Conservative colleague Anna Soubry, who said that the current laws on voluntary euthanasia were dishonest and needed to evolve to allow people to … Continue reading →

Dr. Marcia Angell, a signer of the petition to get Question 2 on the ballot said, “This will be a big, big advance in compassionate medicine, I think, and then probably there will be dominoes around the country….A state-based coalition … Continue reading →

America loses approximately 100 Americans every 24 hours from suicide…$56 million of federal money will help fund suicide-prevention programs.  [Comment: This is at the time that doctor-prescribed suicide advocates are working to make suicide more accessible.] Health Day “Curbing Suicide … Continue reading →

Staying in the hospital without being formally admitted can cost you thousands of dollars. Under the rules, Medicare picks up the whole tab for the first 20 days of skilled nursing for rehab or other care in an approved facility, … Continue reading →