Practical Bioethics: October 2010

A Blog on "Futile CPR"

Blog
Practical Ethics
October 27, 2010

Debates about the definition of futility miss the crucial ethical point. There are only two ultimate reasons for doctors to decline to provide treatment that a patient believes would benefit them.

The first is a paternalistic judgment that treatment would be contrary to the patient’s interests, it would harm them. The second is on the basis of insufficient resources.

Links:

Blog: Break my bones, but don’t let me die! Should doctors provide ‘futile’ CPR?
Podcast: Futile CPR. Always Wrong?, Rosemary Flanigan, 13 minutes 16 seconds

Labels: medical ethics; bioethics

10th Anniversary American Journal of Bioethics

Glenn McGee, PhD

Summer McGee, PhD

It's the 10th Anniversary of the American Journal of Bioethics. In this edition of the Bioethics Channel Lorell LaBoube visits with Glenn McGee and Summer McGee, Editor in Chief and Executive Editor, of the publication.

Links:

Podcast, 17 minutes 3 seconds

Full Text, A Journal of a Journal: The Founding Editor's Perspective on The American Journal of Bioethics, Glenn McGee, Editor-in-Chief

Labels: American Journal of Bioethics; bioethics; The Bioethics Channel

Addressing Sprawl and the Silver Tsunami

John Carney

Vice President for Aging and End of Life

Center for Practical Bioethics

An insightful piece on the impact of urban sprawl in the October 25 Kansas City Star – and KC’s overdependence on the auto.

An aspect that I was hoping the story might point to is the overwhelming demographic shift that will affect every aspect of our lives during the course of the next 30 years - the aging of the baby boomers and the seismic shifts occurring in an aging society.

This is one challenge the Center’s KC4 Aging in Community Initiative is planning to address. (Podcast: Mobility and Transportation for our Aging Population, Scott Helm, PhD)

Despite our magical thinking and regional “dreams” of building a metro with 5.5 million people, we need to realize that the silver tsunami is going to create a landscape that creates a vision far more like Florida, where our mantra will be “smaller, denser, closer-in.”

Rather than eyeing cheaper land, wider highways or faster more fuel efficient cars, we’ll be making room for golf carts on parkways and trying to figure out how to connect cul-de-sacs with neighborhood walkways and how to turn malls back into parks.

It’s about so much more than built environments –transportation, housing and complete streets.

This strikes at the very core of what community means, what neighborhoods s will become – as we grow older and wiser choosing more carefully what kind of Kansas City we truly want to create.

Labels: aging and end of life; KC4 Aging in Community

Respecting the Disabled at End of Life

Paul Tobin
President and CEO
United Spinal Association

9 minutes 46 seconds

Where do we stand these days when it comes to people with disabilities and end of life issues?

Paul Tobin, president and CEO of the United Spinal Association, addresses this question in this edition of the Bioethics Channel. He will be in Kansas City for the Legacy of Nancy Cruzan Conference November 12th and 13th, 2010.

Link to podcast here.

Labels: end of life; disabled

A Tribute to Rosemary Flanigan

You Tube

October 20, 2010

9 minutes 59 seconds

After 24 years of service, Rosemary Flanigan retired from the Center for Practical Bioethics in July 2010. This video tribute includes comments about and warm wishes for a remarkable educator, friend, colleague and woman of faith.

Link to video here.

Labels: bioethics; Center for Practical Bioethics; medical ethics committees

The State of Bioethics

Rosemary Flanigan, PhD
Robert Potter, MD

Two pioneers of bioethics get together to talk about the past and what the future will bring in this special edition of the Bioethics Channel.

Rosemary Flanigan, PhD, retired from the Center for Practical Bioethics in July 2010. Robert Potter, MD, retired from the Center in 2005 and now teaches at the Center for Ethics in Healthcare at Oregon Health Sciences University.

Podcast, 11 minutes 30 seconds

Labels: bioethics; medical ethics; Center for Practical Bioethics

Early Registration Extended to October 20

The Legacy of Nancy Cruzan: 20 years later are we any better at healthcare?

November 12 – 13, 2010

Kansas City, MO

REGISTER NOW: www.cruzan.bioethics.net

Early registration for this conference has been extended to October 20. In addition, all registrants will receive an autographed copy of Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan by William Colby, lawyer for the family of Nancy Cruzan.

The conference includes a session entitled “Implications of Cruzan and the Patient Self Determination Act on Medical Expenditures Today - And Tomorrow,” featuring:

**Dan Crippen, former director, Congressional Budget Office, Assistant to President Ronald Reagan

**Moderator – George Flanagan, DMIN, MA, Program Associate, Center for Practical Bioethics

To register NOW click here.

Labels: Nancy Cruzan; medical ethics; end of life; bioethics; advance care planning

Penn State Doctors' Program Guides Users Through Advance Care Planning

The Patriot News
October 12, 2010

Drs. Benjamin Levi and Michael Green developed a computer program, “Making Your Wishes Known: Planning Your Medical Future,” that walks users through advance care planning, resulting in a comprehensive medical plan and, hopefully, meaningful conversations between family members.

Links:

**Podcast, Too Soon to Give Up on Advance Directives, Michael Green, MD and Benjamin Levi, MD, The Bioethics Channel, 15 minutes 7 seconds

**Too Soon to Give Up: Re-examining the Value of Advance Directives, The American Journal of Bioethics 10(4):3

Labels: advance directives; advance care planning; end of life

Early Registration Extended to October 20

The Legacy of Nancy Cruzan: 20 years later are we any better at healthcare?

November 12 – 13, 2010
Kansas City, MO

REGISTER NOW: www.cruzan.bioethics.net

Early registration for this conference has been extended to October 20. In addition, all registrants receive autographed copy of Long Goodbye: The Deaths of Nancy Cruzan by William Colby, lawyer for the family of Nancy Cruzan.

This conference features a session entitled, “What Can we Learn from Cruzan? Crafting Social Policy for a Pluralistic Society?” with the following panelists:

Introduction -- Christian Sinclair, MD– International Leader in electronic media discussion of palliative care, Section Editor of Pallimed, and Associate Medical Director of Kansas City Hospice

Richard Payne, MD -- Director of the Institute for End of Life Care at Duke University. Dr. Payne is a board certified neuro-oncologist and national leader in palliative care.

Cynda Hylton Rushton, PhD, RN -- Associate Professor, Nursing and Pediatrics Faculty and Program Director of the Harriett Lane Compassionate Care program and faculty of the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University.

To register NOW click here.

Labels: end of life; Nancy Cruzan; bioethics; Patient Self Determination Act

Are iPS Cells the Ethical Holy Grail?

Glenn McGee, PhD
John B. Francis Chair in Bioethics

Another development in stem cell research – a way to produce the benefits of embryonic stem cell research, without destroying embryos.

Is this the Holy Grail around the moral and ethical challenges associated with this research?

Glenn McGee, PhD talks about it in this edition of the Bioethics Channel.

Links:

Podcast, 14 minutes 47 seconds
Cell technique works without embryos, Washington Post, October 1

Labels: stem cell research; bioethics; life science research ethics; American Journal of Bioethics