Digital Commons Network^™

Feeding The Permanently Unconscious And Terminally Ill Or Dying Is Not Always Compassion, Phebe Saunders Haugen

Faculty Scholarship

A surrogate decision maker may conclude that efforts to mechanically provide liquid nourishment would cause considerable suffering in return for little gain. But such a decision is unquestionably one that can produce great conflict for families and for medical caregivers. Assessment must be made of each patient's situation and of the benefits and burdens that will result if tube feeding is withheld or withdrawn. It may well be, however, that in some cases, the most humane and compassionate treatment for a patient is the withdrawal of all technological interventions, including those that supply nourishment.

The Right To Medical Treatment, Taunya Lovell Banks

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Into The Hands Of Strangers, George J. Annas

Faculty Scholarship

Movie critic David Denby has asserted that American theatergoers are a "professional avant-garde audience" who "cannot be shocked by what others would find unintelligible... [and] have lost the capacity for outrage."' This analysis of American theater can be aptly applied to clinical medical education.

I assume almost every nonmedical professional reading "Death at a New York Hospital" will be horrified and outraged at the "treatment" Ms. Hewitt was subjected to in the hospital. Many physicians will too; but it is likely that more will be as understanding of the actions of the intern and residents as was Dr. A, the …