As caregivers at the end of life, men are less common and less likely to report caregiver strain and decedent symptom distress. Health care professionals should actively ask men about these issues and listen carefully, as their responses may be brief and understated.
This article presents data from a qualitative study of nine social work hospice practitioners and experts as they discuss Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. Three themes emerged from the analysis: (a) values regarding physician-assisted death; (b) agency policies about the option; and (c) the role of hospice social workers with physician-assisted death. Three states now allow terminally ill persons to obtain a lethal prescription if criteria are met. Two other states are actively considering and may pass similar legislation over time. Hospice social work practitioners work with patients and families as they consider this option and their voices reflect the complexities and nuances of these interactions.
The Medicare Hospice Benefit has served terminally ill persons and their families since 1983. The political and social development of this policy combined both humanitarian and cost-saving strategies. Although this federal hospice program has mainstreamed care of the terminally ill and provided multiple services, four major constraints of the benefit package are identified and explored. As the United States draws closer to health care reform, it is important that we analyze this policy before we devise new ways to care for the dying and their families.
This article offers a framework for examination and overview of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act after its first year of implementation. This law became public policy on October 27, 1997, when all legal barriers were lifted. The law allows a terminally ill person to request a prescription to end life if she or he qualifies under the law's requirements. According to records, 23 Oregonians have received such a prescription, and 15 have used it. The effect of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) on clients and families, professional health care providers and agencies, and society and culture is explored through two questions: (1) What is known about PAS? and (2) What needs discovery and exploration? The reality of this end-of-life option has forever changed care of terminally ill individuals, and social workers may benefit from the Oregon experience.
Death with dignity and the right to die: sometimes doctors have a duty to hasten death 85 at the University ofFlorida, Indiana University, and the University of Virginia.
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