Read the Fine Print and Do NOT Be Afraid to Ask Questions

Blog, End of Life, Medicine & Health, United States / /

D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.

Executive Director

iStock photo

Medically-assisted suicide (MAS), under a variety of names including physician-assisted suicide, is continually pushed by the group, Compassion and Choices. Other proponents include individuals who are facing a particularly difficult diagnosis or prognosis themselves, or have been asked by loved ones to seek changes in the law that would make MAS legal. It seems this last case was operative in the presentation of HB 0598 in the Tennessee State House Population Health Subcommittee on 4 March. The MAS bill (HB 0598) was summarized as creating “a process whereby an adult ...read more

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Seeing Patients Through Medical AI

Blog, C. Ben Mitchell, Emerging Technologies, Medicine & Health, uncategorized / /

C. Ben Mitchell, Ph.D.

Distinguished Fellow

The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is being integrated within the practice of medicine in leaps and bounds. Fields such as radiology, telehealth, and emergency medicine are increasingly implementing AI in diagnostics and treatment. Doubtless, AI will eventually enhance patient care, prognostics, and clinical practice generally. But at what cost to the physician-patient relationship and trust?

Keeping the patient in view as a whole person is already a challenge for contemporary medicine. Patients are often objectified by their body parts, disease, or location. “That’s the ovarian cancer in ...read more

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Bringing Light to a Culture of Death

Blog, End of Life, Medicine & Health, Other Voices / /

caption id=”attachment_1852″ align=”aligncenter” width=”300″] Stock image[/caption]   by Joyce A. Shelton, Ph.D. Professor of Biology Emerita Trinity International University In contemporary western culture, autonomy (self will, personal choice) is the supreme value. This value is no better exemplified than in the promotion of self-controlled death through legalization of physician assisted suicide. Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) means a physician provides a patient-requested lethal medication that their patient can then use to end his or her life. Most recently, we have witnessed the legalization of PAS, also termed Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD), to ever ballooning proportions in Canada and now in ...read more

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WHO\’s in Charge? WHAt\’s in Store?

Blog, Medicine & Health, WHO / /
by D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.

Executive Director

The World Health Organization (WHO), through the governing World Health Assembly (WHA) has proposed changes to the International Health Regulations (IHR) that eliminate human dignity, human rights, and freedoms of persons. The Article by Article Compilation of Proposed Amendments to the International Health Regulations (2005) submitted by States Parties in the context of Decision WHA75(9)2 shows the changes, noted by strikethroughs, underlining, and bold text. A strikethrough deletes existing text, and proposed new text is underlined and in bold font. Many changes are afoot. Only a few are considered here.

One change to Article 1 of the document (see NOTE 1 below) ...read more

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I Should Have Read More History

Blog, Medicine & Health / /

D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director

As a teenager, I decided I wanted to be a physician — to help people. I also naively thought that medicine was apolitical. I should have read more history. If I had, I might have come across the story of Ignác Fülöp Semmelweis.

Semmelweis was born to Hungarian parents slightly more than 200 years ago, in 1818. Although he began to study law, he ended up graduating from medical school in 1844. Other plans of his changed as well. When he did not land a position in internal medicine, he spent four extra months training to ...read more

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The Rubicon

Blog, End of Life, Medicine & Health, Resource Room, United States / /

D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director

The law in the Roman Republic in 49 B.C. was very clear about an army crossing a small stream outside Rome: it was considered an act of war. Julius Caesar knew this, and led his 13th Legion across that stream, declaring, in the historian Suetonius’ words, “The die is cast!” Caesar and his army did not turn back, but continued on to war, and ultimately defeated Pompey the Great. This turning point in history is referenced whenever we talk about approaching a point of no return and utter the phrase, “crossing the Rubicon.”

“The Rubicon” sculpture ...read more

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Medicine’s Schizophrenic Approach to Suicide

Blog, Medicine & Health, Resource Room / /

D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director

On 10 May 2018, Medscape Medical News published an article about the recent suicides — five days apart — of an NYU psychiatry resident and a medical student. Marcia Frellick, reporting for Medscape, wrote

The university confirmed the deaths to Medscape Medical News in a statement: “We were saddened to learn of the recent deaths of one of our medical students and one of our psychiatry residents, both by suicide. Counseling and support services are being offered to students, faculty, and staff. On behalf of the institution, we extend our deepest condolences to their families, friends, ...read more

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First Human Embryos Edited in U.S.: A Bright Red Line Is Crossed

Blog, Emerging Technologies, Genomic & Genetics Issues, Medicine & Health, uncategorized, United States / /

D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director

“Sooner than we expected”: A friend – a scientist steeped in the bioethics realm – wrote to me of her surprise at the announcement of the first embryonic humans edited in the United States. Steve Connor, writing in the MIT Technology Review, reported the work on 26 July 2017.  Doubtless, the publication of the work in a scientific journal will follow.

The article, “First human embryos edited in U.S.” by Steve Connor, describes the process thusly: “A person familiar with the research says ‘many tens’ of human IVF embryos were created for the experiment using the ...read more

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Helping Patients Live vs. Helping Them Die

Blog, End of Life, Hot Topics, Medicine & Health, United States / /

D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A. Executive Director

Cultural Suicide On Sunday, 28 May 2017, The Tennessean published a full page set of articles on the problem of suicide amongst the armed forces in our nation. The year 2012 saw a peak of 22 U.S. veterans killing themselves per day (Jake Lowary, “‘I can’t do barbecues:’ Veteran says“). The Department of Veterans Affairs plans a 7.5 percent budget increase to $186.1 million in 2018 — all to address suicide prevention, the department’s “highest clinical priority” (Jake Lowary, “Suicide rising in the military, but some programs give veterans hope“).

In light of these sobering statistics, it ...read more

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Choosing Wisely — an initiative of the ABIM Foundation

Medicine & Health, Resource Room / /

Nine United States specialty societies representing 374,000 physicians developed lists of “Five Things Physicians and Patients Should Question” in recognition of the importance of physician and patient conversations to improve care and eliminate unnecessary tests and procedures.

http://choosingwisely.org/?page_id=13

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