Palliative Care = Murder?

Among Doctors, Fierce Reluctance to Let Go

Paula Span
New York Times
March 29, 2012

Even when the system works as it’s supposed to, and palliative care specialists arrive like the cavalry to provide comfort care, to stop fruitless and painful interventions and to support what patients want, their own colleagues may brand them murderers.

Your Death Venture Will Begin Shortly

Holly Yang, MD

San Diego Hospice and The Institute for Palliative Medicine

Happy to pass along a along a blog posting from Pallimed. In this post Holly Yang, MD provides an overview of the Quality of Death report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, which ranks end-of-life care across 40 countries.
She states in part:

While not perfect (the report stated that U.S. patients have to give up curative therapy to get palliative care), it is an interesting read. There are some illustrative examples of the many things that go into providing good end-of-life care (or don’t) in different countries, which help to paint a picture of the global situation out there for those who have only entertained the WHO Public Health Strategy for Palliative Care in theory.