Hundreds of hospice providers across the country are facing the catastrophic financial consequence of what would otherwise seem a positive development: their patients are living longer than expected.
Over the last eight years, the refusal of patients to die according to actuarial schedules has led the federal government to demand that hospices exceeding reimbursement limits repay [...]

Despite dire predictions, “vulnerable” populations including the elderly, the poor, disabled and minorities do not make up a disproportionate number of the deaths in areas where physician-assisted death is legal, according to international research led by a bioethics expert from the University of Utah.Margaret Battin, distinguished professor of philosophy and adjunct professor of internal medicine, [...]

Gary Pearson was 19, snoozing in the back of a van on the way to Coast Guard duty in Seattle, when his life became immensely more complicated. The van hit a guardrail, then a tree. Pearson’s neck broke as he was slammed against the driver’s seat. In the hospital, he was strapped into a huge [...]

DOCTORS who fear their own death are more likely to speed up the death of sick newborns, according to new research. The study found doctors were more likely to help poorly babies die when it was obvious further medical treatment would be futile or that they would be severely disabled.
The research, published ahead of print [...]

The owners of a nursing home where 35 patients died amid flash flooding during Hurricane Katrina are set to stand trial on Monday on negligent homicide charges.
A torrent of water poured through ruptured levees, filling the one-story St. Rita’s Nursing Home almost to the ceiling in about 20 minutes after the storm roared ashore on [...]

The family of a 54-year-old stroke victim says the woman should be allowed to die rather than endure life-sustaining treatment that leaves her permanently sedated.
The Medical Ethics Committee at the woman’s hospital agrees. But doctors can’t grant the family’s wishes without violating state law.
The case could end up before the state Supreme Court, but a [...]

A New Zealand nurse is to go on trial on Monday for the attempted murder of her terminally ill mother, vowing to use the hearing to further her campaign for mercy killings to be made legal.
Intensive care nurse Lesley Martin, a leading euthanasia advocate who wrote a book detailing how she tried to help her [...]

A San Francisco transplant surgeon was criminally charged Monday with excessively prescribing drugs to a 25-year-old disabled man last year in order to hasten his death and harvest his organs sooner.
The felony charges are believed to be the first in the nation against a physician for his role in a transplant.
Experts said the case is [...]

A 38-year-old man who spent more than five years in a mute, barely conscious state as a result of a severe head injury is now communicating regularly with family members and recovering his ability to move after having his brain stimulated with pulses of electric current, neuroscientists are reporting.
“I still cry every time I see [...]

In Louisiana this week, Dr. Anna Pou received news that ended two years of anxiety. A grand jury refused to indict her on charges that she murdered nine terminally ill patients with a lethal cocktail of painkillers in a dark, fetid New Orleans hospital three days after Hurricane Katrina struck.
By all accounts, Pou is a [...]