[MSNBC]Former rugby player Tony Nicklinson had a high-flying job as a corporate manager in Dubai, where he went skydiving and bridge-climbing in his free time.
Seven years ago, he suffered a paralyzing stroke. Today he can only move his head, cannot speak and needs constant care.

And he wants to die.

To try to ensure that whoever ends [...]

[Zocalopublicsquare] Years ago, Charlie, a highly respected orthopedist and a mentor of mine, found a lump in his stomach. He had a surgeon explore the area, and the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer. This surgeon was one of the best in the country. He had even invented a new procedure for this exact cancer that could [...]

[Reuters] When an elderly person’s chronic disease is impossible to cure, many doctors might assume that patient would chose to improve the quality of his or her remaining life rather than to extend it as is. Those doctors would be mistaken most of the time, according to a new study.
Swiss [...]

[MSNBC] Suspended animation may not be just for sci-fi movies anymore: Trauma surgeons soon will try plunging some critically injured people into a deep chill — cooling their body temperatures as low as 50 degrees — in hopes of saving their lives.
Many trauma patients have injuries that should be fixable but they [...]

[NYTimes]- I shouldn’t be surprised when doctors object to laws telling them how to practice medicine, as does New York State’s new Palliative Care Information Act — not surprised, but in this instance, distressed.
Vehemently opposed by the Medical Society of the State of New York, the law passed last summer by a two-thirds majority of [...]

[Yahoo]- End-of-life care falls short of what the average person wants, says a new study that compares palliative care in the U.S. and Ontario.
While most patients prefer supportive measures that avoid a hospital death, U.S. patients received more chemotherapy. Ontario patients have more days in hospital, have more use of emergency rooms, and were much [...]

[BBC]- Voters in the Zurich area of Switzerland are voting on two proposals related to assisted suicide.
The first, to introduce a complete ban on the practice, looks set to be defeated.
But the second, which proposes limiting assisted suicide to Zurich residents only, could get more support.
The Swiss are uneasy that so many foreign citizens are [...]

[RWJF]- First report showing longitudinal change demonstrates differing trends across geographic regions and individual hospitals and academic medical centers.
Chronically ill Medicare patients spent fewer days in the hospital and received more hospice care in 2007 than they did in 2003, but at the same time there was an increase in the intensity of care for [...]

[BioEdge] There is no human right to assisted suicide, the European Court of Human Rights has declared, in a unanimous verdict.

The background to this important judgement is in Switzerland. A 57-year-old Swiss national, Ernst G. Haas, felt that he could no longer live a dignified life after battling a serious bipolar affective disorder for 20 years. [...]

[NYT] The Obama administration, reversing course, will revise a Medicare regulation to delete references to end-of-life planning as part of the annual physical examinations covered under the new health care law, administration officials said Tuesday.  The move is an abrupt shift, coming just days after the new policy took effect on Jan. 1.

Many doctors and [...]