Hard cases, as the famous legal maxim holds, make bad law. The Vatican served up a reminder of the point this week with a new “little end-of-life lexicon,” which not-so-subtly amends an earlier Vatican ruling on the issue of withdrawing artificial nutrition and hydration from chronically ill patients 17 years ago. New end-of-life lexicon The Read more
Since the pope has no wife or children, he needs to designate someone who can make end-of-life decisions for him should he be unable to make them for himself. And the rest of the church needs to know who it is. Otherwise, arguments over his treatment can divide the church for decades, even after his Read more
The intersection between medical advances and human mortality mean we now need “greater wisdom” in evaluating the good of the patient, Pope Francis says. He was speaking to the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and European World Medical Association representatives who met last week to discuss “end of life” issues. “Greater wisdom is Read more
Saturday was Conversations That Count Day, a national initiative promoting advance care planning. The initiative seeks to raise awareness about advance care planning so that people start thinking, talking and planning for their future and end of life care. “Completing an advance care plan is appropriate for any time of life,” Middlemore Hospital renal department Read more
Bestselling author Dr. Atul Gawande’s new book focuses on medical care for the dying. In an interview, he speaks with SPIEGEL about end-of-life priorities, when treatment is a mistake and how rules in care homes are made to be broken. SPIEGEL: Doctor Gawande, are you beginning to feel your age? Gawande: Without question. I had Read more
Doctors at a French hospital have decided not withdraw hydration and nutrition from a quadriplegic man who has been at the centre of a bioethical debate. Vincent Lambert became a quadriplegic and was left in a comatose state after a motorcycle accident in 2008. In 2013, Lambert’s wife and six of his eight siblings asked Read more