Jumping to Dying

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

Executive Director

“Jump off!”

“Stop wasting our time, we’ve been here for ages, do us a favor!” the crowd gathered outside the McDonald’s restaurant shouted to the man 50 feet above them.

The 38-year-old, after eleven hours of police negotiation, relented and did not commit suicide. At least one witness was horrified at the crowd’s reaction. The March 2011 Daily Mail titled the story, “Sick Britain: The jeering crowds who urged suicidal man on McDonald’s roof to ‘jump off’.”

That was Britain in 2011. In the United States in 2012, we have our own ...read more

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Choosing Wisely — an initiative of the ABIM Foundation

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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THE STATE of the Union — On Hormones

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

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Who Is Fit to Practice Medicine?

First published 13 April 2009; reprinted here by the kind permission of www.bioethics.com (http://bioethics.com/author/jriley/)

Recently, I learned that Sweden is struggling with an important question: who should be trained as a physician? One particular student focuses this discussion. Karl Helge Hampus Svensson was banished a year ago from Sweden’s premier Karolinska Institute on the grounds that he had falsified high school records. Lying is not a noble activity for anyone, especially would-be physicians. Correction was necessary. Mr. Svensson was relieved of his medical student status. It was probably not the lying that caught the attention of the school officials, however. Mr. Svensson, ...read more

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