Just a quick nota bene that the current edition of Generations — the journal for the American Society on Aging (ASA) — is posted on ASA’s blog courtesy of funding from Compassion & Choices (the present incarnation of the old Hemlock Society) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
One of the articles is by AARP veteran and Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC) co-founder Bill Novelli (“Advanced Illness Care: We Can Do Better“). Continue reading
They’re at it again. NPR hosted another sham debate. On the left we have Ira Byock, hospice and palliative care advocate; and on the far left we have Compassion & Choices, the radical pro-assisted suicide/euthanasia group.
They are debating a subject that no one would have noticed if it weren’t for well-coordinated media hype from MSNBC, People Magazine and the like.
This is a staged “dialogue” on assisted suicide. Compassion & Choices presents the thesis (assisted suicide should be legal), then Ira Byock comes in with a straw man antithesis (traditional medicine will let you suffer) and then the synthesis: palliative care.
Here’s the dirty little secret: Ira Byock is, himself, a euthanasia advocate. Continue reading
The news of Joan Rivers’ passing was heartbreaking. Her death was tragic; her friends and family must be in shock at the loss.
We’ll probably never know all the details, nor do we need to know. What we have learned from this tragedy, however, is that palliative care is implicitly end-of-life care. Furthermore, this was palliative care at Mt. Sinai — home of the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC). Continue reading
I smell quid pro quo.
Two events occurred on May 21.
The Los Angeles Times reported the fact that the Obama administration (aka, Big Government) has cut a deal with AHIP (Big Insurance). (hat tip Matt Drudge, who picked up the story.)
In exchange for holding down premium increases next year, the administration has promised the insurance industry a bailout worth billions of taxpayer dollars if the insurance companies lose money in the process. The bailout is hidden in regulations that were issued a little over a week ago. Continue reading
A friend has sent me an editorial from the San Francisco Chronicle concerning the Jahi McMath and Marlise Munoz cases. The column, “End of life elusive, thanks to tricks of modern science,” was published last Friday, and was written by Jessica Nutik Zitter, MD, MPH.
Dr. Zitter’s editorials seem to be popping up all over the place these days. See, for Continue reading