Final Directives The Legal Ethical and Moral Journey to Death

                 Final Directives: The Legal Ethical and Moral Journey to Death

Government has no heart or soul. Its sole purpose is conformity to legislative and judicial agendas. Step outside of these two realms then the consequences become toxic and untenable. Final Directives: The Legal Ethical and Moral Journey to Death, brings the reader into a domain displaying government’s intrusive hand when a person’s last days are upon him or her. Lacking clear medical directives, during the most sensitive time in one’s life, overzealous prosecutors and judges become the final arbiters whether you live or die. Through a multitude of medical cases this e-book exemplifies why people should detail whether they want to be kept alive by extraordinary means. One case in the book explains why a grieving family was forced by a state government to continue extraordinary therapies though the patient was declared brain dead. This case eventually was ruled upon in the Supreme Court, surprisingly against the family.

In another case a person approaching his hundredth year was kept alive after his brain death was confirmed. Sadly situations, such as the latter case, could have been averted. This e-book discusses the most current means available to make a person’s final wishes known. There are forms, protocols and formats accepted by each state, if utilized, that gives the patient the ultimate authority over his or her body. There are many excellent lawyers in each state who will help families with the legalities of end of life issues. Allow Final Directives: The Legal Ethical and Moral Journal to Death  to illuminate a subject too often discussed in the shadows of society. This interesting and excellent read is written by a physician, Mark Davis MD who has counseled hundreds of families facing the death of a love one. Learn how to avoid the emotionally wrenching situations written in this book. Thank you.

Doctor Mark Davis writes extensively on health care, science and politics.

To contact him: platomd@gmail.com

Final Directives: The Legal Ethical and Moral Journey to Death is available on Amazon and through most other e-book distributors.

Death on Demand: A Physician's Role in Assisted Suicide

Death on Demand: a physician’s role in assisted suicide

 

Maryland Board of Physicians recent revocation of a physician’s license for assisting in the suicides of his patients was the correct decision. Physicians are neither trained nor licensed to take life. Death on demand is not the physician’s role in society. Euthanasia has been a controversial subject for decades. Government officials have not had the backbone to generate a regulatory structure to terminate the lives of those suffering extreme illnesses. I watched my own mother die a horrible death from a cancer that literally engulfed her body from inside out in the 1970s. No one brought up the subject of euthanizing her because we all knew it was morally and professionally wrong. Yet the debate on pulling the plug continues from that time forward without a resolution in sight. Self-appointed Kevorkians empower themselves, utilizing creative methodologies, to bring a life to a finite point.  Dr. Lawrence Egbert’s empathetic actions, may have been well intentioned, though inconsistent with his licensed authority and his moral obligation to his patients. Many across the gamut of the health professions have the knowledge to take life but few have acted in any perverse manner in this direction. Regulating authorities are not without compassion for those who have a brief period left on Earth. In Maryland and across the nation euthanasia has been debated to the nth degree moving no closer to a solution than our considerations 40 years ago. http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/12/maryland-doctor-lawrence-egbert-accused-of-assisting-suicide-loses-license-110188.html

 

The question who lives and who dies received a slight lift from the legislative effort called the Affordable Care Act. Stories emanating from various sources indicate those facing catastrophic illnesses starting in their mid-seventies will not have access to cutting edge therapies. Why? Government entities are refusing to pay for them. A patient with metastatic cancer was recently told by a major university hospital in the region that chemotherapy costs would not be reimbursed because of his age. Death panels no, but cost panels yes. Is the government in a sense directing physicians to withhold therapies making them responsible for the outcomes, it seems so. Taken to a higher degree are physicians being forced to be stewards of death without their consent? Again, it seems so. Society must determine the appropriate circumstances in which one can bring his or her life to an end in the face of a terminal illness. Physicians must not take it upon themselves or be forced to decide when a life should terminate. I realize many have heard these words before. Unfortunately they have not penetrated the minds of some. The debate on a physician’s role in end of life planning should take place in an open forum for all to hear. Under no circumstances should a physician act in the shadows, playing the part of “Death,” no matter how empathetic he or she is with patients in his or her care.

 

Mark Davis MD, President of Davis Writing Services www.daviswritingservices.com platomd@gmail.com