Is there a lingua franca for bioethics at the end of life?

Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics

Volumn 28, Issue 3, 2000, Pages 279-284

  Derse, Arthur R ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BIOETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS; BRAIN DEATH; COMMUNICATION DISORDER; DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; DEHUMANIZATION; HUMAN; HUMAN RELATION; MEDICAL ETHICS; NOTE; PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE; PROFESSIONAL PATIENT RELATIONSHIP; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; PUBLIC RELATIONS; RIGHT TO DIE; SEMANTICS; TERMINAL CARE; TREATMENT OUTCOME;

BIOETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL ETHICS; DEATH AND EUTHANASIA; PROFESSIONAL PATIENT RELATIONSHIP;

BRAIN DEATH; COMMUNICATION BARRIERS; DEHUMANIZATION; DOUBLE EFFECT; ETHICS, CLINICAL; ETHICS, MEDICAL; HUMANS; INTERPROFESSIONAL RELATIONS; MEDICAL FUTILITY; PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE; PROFESSIONAL-PATIENT RELATIONS; RIGHT TO DIE; SEMANTICS; TERMINAL CARE;

EID: 0034279944     PISSN: 10731105     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-720X.2000.tb00671.x     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. R. Cohen-Almagor, "Language and Reality at the End of Life," Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 28 (2000): 267-278, at 267.
2. Id.
3. Id., at 275.
4. Id.
5. Id.
6. Id., at 274-5..
7. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 9th ed. (Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam Webster, 1983): at 695.
8. C.E. Schneider, "Bioethics in the Language of the Law," Hastings Center Report, 24, no. 4 (1994): 16-22.
9. W.P. Keeton et al., Prosser and Keeton on Torts, 5th ed. (St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing Company, 1984).
10. W.J. Donnelly, "The Language of Medical Case Histories," Annals of Internal Medicine, 127 (1997): 1045-1048.
11. A. Meisel, "The Legal Consensus about Forgoing Life-Sustaining Treatment: Its Status and Prospects," Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, 2 (1993): 309-345.
12. Cohen-Almagor, supra note 1, at 275.
13. A.R. Derse, "Legal Issues in End-of-life Care," in L.L. Emanuel, C.F. von Gunten, and F.D. Ferris, eds., Education for Physicians on End-of-life Care (EPEC) Curriculum, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Chicago: American Medical Association, 1999): 2-8.
14. P.R. Helft, M. Siegler, and J. Lantos, "The Rise and Fall of the Futility Movement," N. Engl. J. Med., 343 (2000): 293-295.
15. S.B. Rubin, When Doctors Say No : The Battleground of Medical Futility (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1998).
16. J.R. Curtis et al., "Use of the Medical Futility Rationale in Do-Not-Attempt-Resuscitation Orders," JAMA, 273, no. 2 (1995): 124-128 (see comments).
17. J.D. Lantos et al., "The Illusion of Futility in Clinical Practice," American Journal of Medicine (1989): 8781-8784.
18. Derse, supra note 13, at 2-9.
19. M.D. Cantor, C. Braddock, A.R. Derse et al., Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders and Medical Futility. A Report by the National Ethics Committee of the Veterans Health Administration (Washington, D.C.: National Center for Ethics, Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, September 2000).
20. Cohen-Almagor, supra note 1, at 270.
21. Futility and rationing differ. See N.S. Jecker and L.J. Schneiderman, "Futility and Rationing," American Journal of Medicine, 92 (1992): 189-196.
22. Cohen-Almagor, supra note 1, at 271.
23. N.A. Christakis, Death Foretold : Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care (Chicago: University of Chicago, 1999).
24. G.J. Annas, "Informed Consent, Cancer, and Truth in Prognosis," N. Engl. J. Med., 330 (1994): 223-225.
25. Cohen-Almagor, supra note 1, at 271.
26. Id., at 268.
27. In re Guardianship of L.W., 167 Wis. 2d 53 (1992).
28. "Physician Assisted Suicide," Module 5, in L.L. Emanuel, C.F. von Gunten, F.D. Ferris, eds., Education for Physicians on End-of-Life Care (EPEC) Curriculum, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Chicago: American Medical Association, 1999): M5-12.
29. A.E. Chin et al., "Legalized PAS in Oregon - The First Year's Experience," N. Engl. J. Med., 340 (1999): 577-83.
30. D.P. Sulmasy and E.D. Pellegrino, "The Rule of Double Effect: Clearing Up the Double Talk," Archives of Internal Medicine, 159 (1999): 545-550.
31. Cohen-Almagor, supra note 1, at 272.
32. Derse, supra note 13, at 2-8.
33. Vacco v. Quill, 117 S. Ct. 2293 (1997).
34. T.E. Quill and D.W Brock, "Palliative Options of Last Resort: A Comparison of Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking, Terminal Sedation, Physician-Assisted Suicide, and Voluntary Active Euthanasia," JAMA, 278 (1997): 2099-2104.
35. S.J. Youngner and D.T. Bartlett, "Human Death and High Technology: The Failure of Whole-Brain Death Formulations," Annals of Internal Medicine, 99 (1983): 252-258.
36. New Jersey Declaration of Death Act, N.J. Stat. Ann. tit. 26 § 6A-1 to 6A-8 (West 1991); N.Y. Comp. Codes R. & Regs. tit. 10 § 400.16(e)(3) (McKinney 1987). There are some practical problems worthy of a law school examination question that can result from the lack of uniformity in definitions of brain death. For instance, if a Pennsylvania resident who was a member of a religious community that did not recognize brain death met the criteria for brain death and was declared dead in Pennsylvania and then transported while still dependent upon a ventilator from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, would the patient be considered dead or alive?
37. Cohen-Almagor, supra note 1, at 273.
38. Id., at 269.
39. Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, supra note 7, at 1307.
40. R.E. Cranford, "The Persistent Vegetative State: The Medical Reality (Getting the Facts Straight)," Hastings Center Report, 18 (1988): 27-32.
41. Council on Scientific Affairs and Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, American Medical Association, "Persistent Vegetative State and the Decision to Withdraw or Withhold Life Support," JAMA, 263 (1990): 426-430.
42. New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, When Others Must Choose: Deciding for Patients Without Capacity (Albany: Health Research Inc., March 1992). Tracy Miller, the founding executive director of the task force, said that the task force chose to use permanent unconsciousness because the members concluded it was more respectful of patients than persistent vegetative state (personal communication, October 12, 2000).
43. New York State Task Force on Life and the Law, When Others Must Choose: Deciding for Patients Without Capacity (Albany: Health Research Inc., March 1992). Tracy Miller, the founding executive director of the task force, said that the task force chose to use permanent unconsciousness because the members concluded it was more respectful of patients than persistent vegetative state (personal communication, October 12, 2000).
44. Cruzan v. Missouri Department of Health, 497 U.S. 261 (1990)