Resources on End of Life Issues

The UK Clinical Ethics Network provides extremely useful information on the current frameworks available to make ethical decisions concerning end of life issues. Their website links to national policy and guidelines on end of life as well as providing links to a number of medical guidelines approved by medical professional bodies on end of life issues. this website is a useful resource.

When is medical treatment too much treatment?

I thought the following article was interesting. It argues that in the USA the medical industry prolongs life with expensive sometimes "unecessary" treatments. It proposes that time spent in peace within a palliative care environment is a better way of approching the end of life than through the continuouse struggle against death. I wonder if as a society we are able to move away from the culture of the beautiful and healthy, and accept that aging, and dying is the full completion of the cycle of life. Happy reading. Please post comments if so inclined.

Nurses to express their views on end of life issues

Nursing Times has developed an online questionnaire asking nurses about their feelings and experience around assisted suicide. the purpose is to gain a comprehensive picture of how nurses deal with this difficult issue in hospitals, in the community, in hospices and nursing homes. The survey is anonymous and the full results will be reported in an issue of Nursing Times and on www.nursingtimes.net soon.

If you are a nurse, please fill in the questionnaire and express your views on this important subject. It is crucial to have all medics on the front line od this difficult subject express their opinions.

Is there a bias in BBC coverage about right to die?

The BBC has been accused of pushing the ‘right-to-die’ agenda by giving hours of airtime and leading news bulletins to the opinions of campaigners and publishing the results of opinion polls in a selective way. The BBC website has presented the views of celebrity fantasy fiction writer Terry Pratchett (last night’s Dimbleby lecture) and Mrs Kay Gilderdale (last night’s Panorama programme produced by Jeremy Vine) without giving similar space to opposing opinions.

If you care strongly that other views on this crucial issue be heard, please complain to the BBC about the bias of the coverage, and about the way that the views of disabled people in particular have been marginalised in a debate which affects them so personally. The complaints form can be accessed here.

Alternatively phone them on 03700 100 222 or write to BBC Complaints, PO Box 1922, Glasgow G2 3WT