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

Helping Patients Live vs. Helping Them Die Read More »

Public Comment before the FDA Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee, 25 February 2014

Blog, Engineering Humans, Resource Room, United States / /

Good afternoon, Members of the Advisory Committee, Ladies and Gentlemen.

I am Dr. D. Joy Riley, the executive director of The Tennessee Center for Bioethics & Culture, an educational not-for-profit organization headquartered in Nashville, TN, dedicated to promoting human dignity in the face of challenges to what it means to be human, and to informing and equipping people to face the vital bioethics issues of the 21st Century.

I am a physician by training, and hold a graduate degree in bioethics as well. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today.  I have no conflicts of interest to report.

It is remarkable ...read more

Public Comment before the FDA Cellular, Tissue, and Gene Therapies Advisory Committee, 25 February 2014 Read More »

Asking the Right Questions

Blog / /

Marilyn Chandler McEntyre has done us all a favor by writing her book, Caring for Words in a Culture of Lies (Grand Rapids, MI:  Eerdmans, 2009).  Early in her chapter, “Don’t Tolerate Lies,” the author references a quote of Blaise Pascal: We hate the truth, and people hide it from us; we want to be flattered, and people flatter us; we like being deceived, and we are deceived.* Given this situation, Professor McEntyre offers some help to us, that we might be better able to discern what is true when we read the news. How ...read more

Asking the Right Questions Read More »

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

Choosing Wisely — an initiative of the ABIM Foundation Read More »

THE STATE of the Union — On Hormones

Blog / /

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

A few days ago, I received an unsolicited e-mail from “Stephanie Cutter, BarackObama.com” <[email protected]>.  It read in part,

Here’s some big news that’s going to affect millions of women.

On Friday, the Obama administration announced that soon women won’t have to pay out of pocket for birth control: Starting August 1st, many insurance plans nationwide will be required to fully cover contraception without co-pays or deductibles. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, more women can make health care decisions based on what’s best for them — ...read more

THE STATE of the Union — On Hormones Read More »