tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44242881854185543742024-02-18T17:39:39.028-08:00otherspoonAnn Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.comBlogger1231125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-38518110025223000592015-09-11T10:03:00.000-07:002015-09-11T10:03:25.504-07:00"A much poorer death culture.""Anthropologists, and in particular those from Western societies, stand in a peculiar relation to death. They have often had a brief personal brush with death at home--an aunt, a grandparent or a favorite cousin--but only become engrossed in the cultural complexities of death, mourning, and burial once in the field. This situation contains several dangers. The ethnographic experience overshadows their general understanding of death, misleads them into believing that their own culture has a much poorer death culture than that of their hosts, and may result in a distortive opposition between the ordinary, shallow, secular death culture of Western society and the intricate, profound, sacred death rituals elsewhere."<br />
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Something to ponder, for all those examining current burial, memorial and grieving practices.<br />
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From the introduction to <i>Death, Mourning, and Burial: A Cross-Cultural Reader</i>, by Antonius C. G. M. Robben (Blackwell, 2004).Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-67801463658554009062015-07-30T07:33:00.000-07:002015-07-30T07:35:32.571-07:00The Good Death, February 16, 2016.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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On Monday I submitted my review of copy edits for <i>The Good Death: An Exploration of Dying in America</i>, a book I've been researching and writing for what feels like forever but has been, by the calendar, seven years. That's a distinctly significant period of time. The seven year itch, the signs of revelation, the completion of a cycle which initiates renewal (a snake swallowing its tale), the number of the virtues, an oath. The chakras, the pillars of wisdom, the wonders of the world, the visible colors of the rainbow. </div>
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<i>The Good Death</i> will soon be something you and I can hold in our hands. So for now, that's the richness of seven years for me, a driving curiosity, pursued in the presence of countless amazing people and ideas, transformed into a physical object.</div>
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Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-31973435184751551332015-02-07T07:44:00.000-08:002015-02-07T07:44:27.534-08:00Remembering Jeb Bush's Role in the Terri Schiavo Case<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14px;">
With so much talk about Florida Governor Jeb Bush running for president and with the anniversary of Terri Schiavo's death approaching next month, I'm posting an excerpt from a talk I gave at Colgate University last year which outlines Bush's role in the case:</div>
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Like Karen Ann Quinlan and Nancy Cruzan, Schiavo was unconscious and had stopped breathing for more than four minutes, a duration of time that doctors roughly consider the window from within which patients may recover. Her husband had found her on the floor of their Florida home in February of 1990 and called 911. When paramedics arrived, she was resuscitated and rushed to a nearby hospital where eventually, she was given a feeding tube. For years Terri’s husband and her family, the Schindlers, attended her, hoping that therapy would restore consciousness. But ultimately, Michael accepted that his wife would not recover. Her family, Roman Catholics, did not. They became estranged when Michael sought to legally have Terri’s feeding tube removed.</div>
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Michael received permission from a district judge in 2001 to remove the tube after providing witnesses and evidence that she would not have wanted to be kept alive. It was removed, but two days later the Schindler’s appealed the decision, saying that “Terri was a devout Roman Catholic who would not wish to violate the Church's teachings on euthanasia by refusing nutrition and hydration.” The feeding tube was reinstated. Over the course of the next few years, the dramatic removal and reinsertion played out several times with the public, district judges, state and federal legislators, and activists of every stripe weighing in on the state of Schiavo’s life and health.</div>
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The Schindler’s recruited Randall Terry, an anti-abortion activist who had founded Operation Rescue and knew how to get publicity, to take up their cause. Randall Terry arranged vigils and protests outside the hospice where Terri Schiavo was a patient and put pressure on the Florida governor, Jeb Bush, an anti-abortion Republican. Writes Colby, the Cruzan’s lawyer, “In Tallahassee, the Florida state capital, email and phone calls began to pour in with messages from people pleading for Terri Schiavo’s life.” Later the governor said he received 160,000 messages. Governor Bush called a special legislative session the night of Sunday, October 19, 2003, and “Terri’s Law,” which overrode the courts and ordered the tube again be reinstated, was passed unanimously the following afternoon. Two hours later the hospice was served with an order to reinstate the tube. Terri Schiavo’s long-time doctor chose to resign rather than do so; another doctor at the facility performed the reinsertion. </div>
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In 2004, the Florida Supreme Court overturned “Terri’s Law,” ruling it unconstitutional. Governor Bush tried to appeal but the US Supreme Court refused to hear the case. A new date was set for final removal by the Florida District Judge George Greer: March 18 at 1 pm. With no remaining options, the Schindlers met with the governor and other important officials. They enlisted the support of both key anti-abortion legislators and an effort was headed by House Majority Leader Tom Delay to “pass a bill that would move the Schiavo case to federal courts.” Although most legislators had headed home for the Easter break, those who remained decided in the early morning hours of Friday, March 18 to issue subpoenas “to trigger federal protection for Terri Schiavo,” but one week later, Florida Judge Greer called a hearing to tell federal legislators they had no jurisdiction in the case. “My order will stand,” he told them. </div>
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An hour later, Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube was again removed. Legislators, writes Colby, called a “rare Saturday night session of the US Senate that was attended by only three senators, Senate Majority Leader, Bill Frist, Mel Martinez of Florida, and John Warner of Virginia. Senator Frist said, ‘Under the legislation we will soon consider, Terri Schiavo will have another chance.’” The federal law, titled “For the relief of the parents of Theresa Marie Schiavo,” was brought before emergency sessions in both the house and senate the following day, Palm Sunday. The senate passed the bill, which became known as the Palm Sunday Compromise, unanimously -- but the house was blocked by eight Democrats who challenged it on weekend rules, so house leaders waited until after midnight to pass it. President George W. Bush, informed of the bill’s progress, curtailed his vacation and returned to Washington that day to sign it. </div>
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In the US House Sunday night, Tom Delay stood to say, “A young woman in Florida is being dehydrated and starved to death. For 58 long hours her mouth has been parched and her hunger pains have been throbbing... She is alive. She is still one of us. And this cannot stand.” The bill was passed at 12:41 am and President Bush signed it into law at 1:11 am. </div>
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But repeatedly, federal and Florida district judges refused to recognize the bill. New appeals were submitted and turned down. New bills, hastily written and frantically debated, failed to pass in Florida. Governor Bush threatened to use the Department of Child and Families to take custody of Schiavo by order. David Gibbs, the Schindler’s lawyer and President of the Christian Law Association called Michael Schiavo a “murderer.” More motions were submitted and denied. Protesters called hospice workers “Nazis,” “cowards” and “murderers.” At the Schindler’s request Reverend Jesse Jackson flew to Florida. Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life and President of the National Pro-Life Religious Council accompanied Terri’s siblings on their last visit to their sister’s room. Terri Schiavo died on March 31st, 13 days after her feeding tube was removed.</div>
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Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-22235973644820765512014-12-22T12:21:00.002-08:002014-12-22T12:21:45.539-08:00Katharine Hayhoe and God's Fevered Creation.For Guernica's final special issue of 2014, <a href="https://www.guernicamag.com/features/religion-in-america-gods-and-devils/" target="_blank">Religion in America</a>, I interviewed climate scientologist Katharine Hayhoe. Here's a clip, below, or you can <a href="https://www.guernicamag.com/interviews/gods-creation-is-running-a-fever/" target="_blank">read the entire interview here</a>.<br />
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Guernica:</strong> Actor Don Cheadle says in <em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Years of Living Dangerously</em>, before meeting you, “I’ve never heard of anyone like Katharine Hayhoe.” In popular culture we don’t often encounter someone who is both a scientist and a Christian. It’s like you’re a unicorn.</div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Katharine Hayhoe:</strong> It’s a common perception that science and religion are mutually exclusive. But there are many scientists who would consider themselves to be spiritual people. Not only that, but in the case of climate change—a scientific issue with strong moral implications and difficult decisions to be made—it’s essential to connect the science to our values. And for many of us, our values come from our faith.</div>
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For Christians, doing something about climate change is about living out our faith—caring for those who need help, our neighbors here at home or on the other side of the world, and taking responsibility for this planet that God created and entrusted to us. My faith tells me that God does want people to understand climate change and do something about it. And that is a very freeing thought: I don’t have to change the world all by myself, I just need to partner in the work God wants us to do.</div>
Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-77244638040346623722014-10-12T09:59:00.002-07:002014-10-12T09:59:50.967-07:00Upcoming Events, October 2014I'll be reading at two events this month. Please come say hi!<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/575870319206411/" target="_blank">Monday, October 13</a><br />
Greenlight Books, 686 Fulton Street, Brooklyn<br />
Launch of the Guernica magazine Annual<br />
With readings by Nick Flynn, Rachel Riederer, Saeed Jones, Ann Neumann<br />
And a Q&A with Guernica Editor in Chief Michael Archer<br />
7:30 pm<br />
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<a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=730233057069547&set=a.484235621669293.1073741827.100002485795846&type=1&theater&notif_t=like_tagged" target="_blank">Sunday, October 26</a><br />
Unnameable Books, 600 Vanderbilt Avenue, Brooklyn<br />
With readings by Dania Rajendra, Nathan Schneider and Ann Neumann*<br />
Hosted by Robert Eshelman<br />
6 pm<br />
*I'll be reading from my forthcoming book, to be published by Beacon Press next year<br />
<br />Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-45617226829549093292014-07-13T05:51:00.004-07:002014-07-13T08:19:04.892-07:00Death to Preserved Land by a Thousand Dirty PipelinesI'm tickled to have an Op-Ed in the New York Times Sunday Review section this morning about something that's dear to me: the hollow I grew up in. Right now a natural gas transporter, Williams, is threatening to run a pipeline through it.<br />
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Lots of folks are asking what they can do to help. Here are some options:<br />
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Leave a comment at FERC, docket PF 14-8: https://ferconline.ferc.gov/QuickComment.aspx<br />
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Write a love letter to PA Governor Tom "Frackers own me" Corbett or call him at 717.787.2500: http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1072219&parentname=ObjMgr&parentid=11&mode=2<br />
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Share this far and wide. We're all getting fracked.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/opinion/sunday/a-pipeline-threatens-our-family-land.html?ref=opinion&_r=0Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-54426560482814632762014-06-04T13:22:00.000-07:002014-06-04T13:22:48.290-07:00On the Blog Train.A couple of writer friends have tagged me on what they're calling a <b>blog train</b>, a series of questions about what projects and processes we're engaged with at the moment. I'm a little late to this but I have a good excuse: I just got back from a month in the south of India and, well, jet lag is for real. But <a href="http://brookwilensky-lanford.com/" target="_blank"><b>Brook Wilensky-Lanford</b></a> and <a href="http://killingthebuddha.com/author/maryvalle/" target="_blank"><b>Mary Valle</b></a> are rock stars as far as I'm concerned. Some calls for participation shouldn't be ignored. Besides, its always helpful to think about how I organize and describe my own work--and here's a chance to engage in that exercise. Through the dissipating fog I hop on the blog train.<br />
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<b>What am I working on?</b><br />
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A Book! With a capital B. Next year Beacon Press will publish a project that I've been researching for about six years, SITTING VIGIL: IN SEARCH OF A GOOD DEATH. I've known Amy Caldwell there for a few years and I'm delighted to work with her. The books starts with the question: Why do so few Americans die the way they want to? For the past 50 years, medicine, culture, and law have made it increasingly difficult to know what's coming and how to plan for it. It's my first book and the manuscript is due this fall so I'm excited to be diving deep into the writing phase.<br />
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I also write a monthly column for The Revealer, a publication of The Center for Religion and Media at New York University, called "The Patient Body." Because the material in the column overlaps with much of the book, I get to think freely, to test ideas, to ask questions without requiring that they fit into a larger structure. It's good fun and the editor there, Kali Handelman, has been super smart about making me go deeper, think harder, explain more clearly. And I'm also happy to be a contributing nonfiction editor at Guernica magazine, although to be honest, they're getting more writing out of me right now than editing because of my book deadline. These things are great for book procrastination, even as I use the book to procrastinate them! I'm always cheating on one project with another and I think that keeps me from getting stale. I recently started a series of tragic short stories--about suicides, car accidents, runaway trains--which have turned out to be incredibly enjoyable.<br />
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<b>How does my work/writing differ from others in its genre? </b><br />
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Re: SITTING VIGIL: Most books about the social and cultural aspects of death are clinical and academic or sentimental. While there are some really great exceptions (Sherwin Nuland's 1995 bestseller <i>How We Die</i> or, say, Jessica Mitford's classic 1963 take down of the funeral industry <i>The American Way of Death</i>), I find a lot of the books out there to be informative and great for research but not necessarily a good read. I first thought of this project as a memoir; the experience of caring for my father until he died in 2005 rocked me and, as someone in my late thirties, I wanted to know why I was so unprepared for it. My approach from the beginning has been fueled by intense investigative curiosity. I became a hospice volunteer in order to describe the dying process first hand. I spend a lot of time with doctors, bioethicists, nurses, preachers, home health aids, lawyers and of course people who are dying and their families. Because I started out writing poetry, I think I'll always begin with personal experience--told with as much detail as I can muster--but I really like the big hard questions, often those that come from tearing apart terms that go unexamined even as they are used as placeholders in our conversations: hope, dignity, a good death. And I'm scrappy; I like to dabble in theory and policy, but ground those knowledges and facts in the stories my patients tell me. I try to break down the big words and ideas into concrete details, to ask the questions we often consider too impolite: What is love, really? What is care? Quality of life? Choice? I figured the best way to examine how Americans die was to go out there and watch them die, to dispense with the euphemisms, to pull back the pale blue hospital curtains, to ask patients what they were physically feeling, seeing, fearing, and expecting. And I'm wedding those narratives to deep reporting. SITTING VIGIL is story driven and it's incredibly personal, even as it comes out of years of research. What I hope is that the writing is creative and engaging even as the social justice aspects of death and dying are.<br />
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<b>Why do I write what I do?</b><br />
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The simple answer is I write about death and dying because I'm fascinated and often perplexed by how individuals reckon with it. I don't think it's false humility for me to say that it's easy to write about dying; death is inherently profound and dramatic. Sure, losing patient after patient, always grieving takes a toll--I'm constantly in awe of hospice workers, doctors and nurses--but I've never had to explain why this project matters or why we should care about how we die. It's impossible to write about someone's death and the challenges they've encountered without getting emotionally involved, without encountering pain and struggle, without being schooled on empathy and sympathy all the time. In an environment where decisions are so limited and poignant, I have been taught by my patients and interviewees what setting priorities is all about. I joke that my next book will be about puppies and butterflies but I doubt it. I like the weight of this subject. And I have to admit that it's a subject, like religion, that makes people squirm. I like that.<br />
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<b>How does my writing process work?</b><br />
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I'm terribly neat and organized, I think because I'm afraid of losing details, afraid that I won't recall an experience or emotion. I'm kind of flighty and I don't want to miss anything important so I can't go anywhere without a notebook. That wealth of material often leads to culling details or incidents that later, in context or on the page, lose their vitality or become redundant. I've got a building pile of clippings, notes, and articles for each chapter and because I've been working on this project for so long, some of them have had to shift around until they found a home. But I did, at least for this project, have to start with a fairly refined outline. Of course, I'm always proving myself wrong, always rearranging things, either in the process of writing (which is definitely the best way of thinking/explaining/discovering for me) or with new research. Because I have this kind of organization and structure, I'm able to experiment with how to best juxtapose different issues and contexts. For me the adage is true: form is liberating.<br />
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Right now, with a deadline looming, my schedule is really structured. I work at home and control my schedule and environment as much as possible. When I'm cranking, I'm pretty much 9 to 5. I don't get online till noon, I have daily and weekly goals. And I'm happy like a kid when I meet them. I've never been good on limited sleep so I try to have strict wake and bed times. I'm kind of like an old lady that way. And I have to edit on paper. If I try to read my own stuff online, I get lost. So I have to print out a draft, spread it out on my dining room table or the floor. Then I can see it.<br />
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I'm lucky to have a great writing community, from the talented and astute members of my writing group to fellow travelers who are engaged with death and dying, to my agent, Laurie Abkemeier, who has turned out to be a brilliant reader of my work. Often, I find myself writing something and running it through a couple of lenses: a bioethicist, a great long-form journalist, my sister, an academic friend. It's not that I'm trying to write for everybody (although I hope what I am doing is broadly engaging) but that I want to be sure I'm thinking in the round rather than coming at anything with a destination already in mind. Doing so keeps me from making assumptions, and that's the purpose, right? To see and record, to describe and explain as honestly as I can.Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-657193627358962172014-06-03T11:05:00.000-07:002014-06-04T04:26:25.977-07:00Spring Sprung.I just got back from India which means I'm constantly groggy with jet lag. But it's been a tremendous spring with lots of new writing and events. It helps to sum it all up; proof that I've been happily busy.
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The best and brightest news is that the book I've been researching for about 6 years will... become a book! SITTING VIGIL: IN SEARCH OF A GOOD DEATH will be published by Beacon Press in 2015. No small thanks goes to my brilliant agent, Laurie Abkemeier, for finding me, for believing in this project from the beginning, and for holding my hand through the process. I'm so tickled. And I'm so on lock-down. The deadline for the manuscript is this fall.<br />
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A host of other little successes and articles have kept me busy. Here are some links:<br />
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My time in India straddled the conclusion of the national election in which the Congress party, in power almost uninterruptedly since the time of Indian independence in 1947, was defeated by the BJP. The new Prime Minister, Modi, represents an extraordinary overthrow of political philosophy. I wrote about Modi, and an Indian yoga guru, Baba Ramdev, who aided Modi's election, for Killing the Buddha, <a href="http://killingthebuddha.com/mag/damnation/whose-india-first/">"Whose 'India First'?"</a>.<br />
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As a new contributing nonfiction editor at the online literary magazine, Guernica, I was lucky enough to help edit an article by academic Wendy Pearlman on the Syrian uprising and how it has affected individual lives there. Read Pearlman's <a href="http://www.guernicamag.com/features/fathers-of-revolution/">"Fathers of Revolution"</a> when you can. It's stunning.<br />
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In April I got to read, along with Alia Malek and Erika Anderson, at a Big Umbrella/Guernica sponsored event. It was fantastic fun--even though I was nervous to be reading... about kidneys. I read <a href="http://therevealer.org/archives/18746">"What's a Kidney Worth?"</a> one of the earlier installments of my column at The Revealer, a publication of The Center for Religion and Media at New York University. Writing the monthly "The Patient Body" column has been pure joy. And it's ongoing so keep an eye on The Revealer if "issues at the intersection of religion and media" are your thing.<br />
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I wrote two book reviews for Bookforum this spring. The first (FEB/MAR 2014) was of Megan Hustad's <i>More than Conquerors: A Memoir of Lost Arguments</i> and the second (APR/MAY 2014) was of Charles Marsh's <i>Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer</i>. If you don't subscribe to Bookforum, well, you should. Both, so far, are only in print.<br />
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On April 3 I was honored to speak at Colgate University's Lambert Institute for Civic and Global Affairs. Hamilton, New York, is so charming and the drive up and back were so gorgeous. But the best part was meeting faculty and students who were perfect, curious and insightful hosts.<br />
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For Guernica's special issue on the American South in March, I wrote about the increasingly Southern practice of execution. You should check out the entire issue, which will soon become an ebook, <a href="http://www.guernicamag.com/features/the-american-south-on-the-map-and-in-the-mind/">here</a>.<br />
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In February I got to write <a href="http://www.faithstreet.com/onfaith/2014/02/21/moral-highs-and-lows/31040">about marijuana and hospice for OnFaith</a>. Here's a little excerpt: "The ironies of how we regulate moral behavior were not lost on me. Nor would they have been lost on most anyone who happened to observe our smoking through the window of her luxurious apartment on Central Park West."<br />
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Also in February I was asked to present a talk for the Columbia University Seminar on Death. The conversation was so lively and smart that I came away with insights that continue to inform my work.<br />
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A special issue on End of Life was printed by the New York Law School Review in February. You can read my contribution, <a href="http://www.nylslawreview.com/201314-volume-58-number-2/">"The Limits of Autonomy: Force-Feedings in Catholic Hospitals and Prisons"</a> online.<br />
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Now on to summer!
Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-69487948076007620792013-12-19T07:42:00.003-08:002013-12-19T07:42:46.958-08:00Dying with ClassIt's out! Yesterday <i>Living with Class: Philosophical Reflections on Identity and Material Culture</i> came off the presses. It's edited by Ron Scapp and Brian Seitz and includes essays by bell hooks, Stanley Aronowitz, Lisa Nell, Henry Giroux and others.<br />
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I've got an essay in the book that looks at class, race, religion and hospice use called, "Dying with Class."<br />
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Living-Class-Philosophical-Reflections-Identity/dp/1137326816" target="_blank">You can by it here</a>.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://us.macmillan.com/livingwithclass/RonScapp" target="_blank">Read more about <i>Living with Class</i> at the Palgrave Macmillan site</a>.<br />
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Here's the book's table of contents:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">Introduction: Working Class; Ron Scapp and Brian Seitz</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">1. Class Dismissed: The Issue Is Accountability; bell hooks</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">2. Letter from a Lovelorn Pre-Radical: Looking Forward and Backward at Martin Luther King Jr.; Kevin Bruyneel,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">3. In Search of a New Left, Then and Now; Dick Howard</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">4. The Status of Class; Stanley Aronowitz</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">5. 'Fix the Tired': Cultural Politics and the Struggle for Shorter Hours; Kristin Lawler</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">6. Literary and Real Life Salesmen and the Performance of Class; Jon Dietrick</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">7. Money Changes Everything?: African American Class-Based Attitudes toward LBGT Issues; Ravi K. Perry, Yasmiyn Irizarry, and Timothy J. Fair</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">8. Democracy without Class: Investigating the Political Unconscious of the United States; M. Lane Bruner</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">9. Re-Forming Class: Wealth, Culture, and Identity in South Africa; Lisa Nell</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">10. Whiteness as Currency: Rethinking the Exchange Rate; Emily M. Drew</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">11. Dying with Class: Race, Religion, and the Commodification of a Good Death; Ann Neumann</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">12. New Materialisms and Digital Culture: Productive Labor and the Software Wars; Ted Kafala</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">13. Feminist Theory and the Critique of Class; Robin Truth Goodman</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">14. Criminal Class; Eric Anthamatten</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">15. Consuming Class: Identity & Power through the Commodification of Bourgeois Culture, Celebrity, and Glamour; Raúl Rubio</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">16. When Prosperity Is Built on Poverty, There Can Be No Foundation for Peace, as Poverty and Peace Don't Stand Hand in Hand; Pepi Leistyna</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">17. Solon the Athenian and the Origins of Class Struggle; Thomas Thorp</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;"><br style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;" /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px;">18. Memories of Class and Youth in the Age of Disposability; Henry A. Giroux</span>Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-71762807713391274192013-12-19T07:36:00.000-08:002013-12-19T07:36:56.995-08:00A Closely-Held BusinessYou can read the latest installment of my "Patient Body" column at <a href="http://therevealer.org/archives/18824" target="_blank">The Revealer</a>! I look at the current cases pending in the US Supreme Court, brought by Hobby Lobby and Conestoga Wood Specialties, that challenge employees' rights to full health care coverage. Here's an excerpt:<br />
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Conflating Conestoga Wood Specialties with the Hahn family, which the repeated use of “closely-held” means to do, is a way to erase the separation between the family and the corporation. Non-profits are exempt from some general laws that are otherwise meant to protect the rights of workers. Why aren’t “closely-held” corporations? The real question before the US Supreme Court then, despite the other many arguments for and against the “contraception mandate,” is this: whose beliefs are more important, an employer’s or an employee’s<ins cite="mailto:Ann%20Neumann" datetime="2013-12-02T15:15" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">?</ins></div>
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The Conestoga appeal states:</div>
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<em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The question presented is exceptionally important. Our nation was founded on freedom of religion, and our free-enterprise system allows entrepreneurs to pursue profit while also serving the common good. But the decision below puts these two foundational principles at odds. Must religious believers check their consciences at the door of their businesses, or may they generally live integrated lives of faith at work?</em></div>
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<ins cite="mailto:Ann%20Neumann" datetime="2013-12-02T15:16" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">In other words, y</ins>ou own the business, you decide what “lives of faith” look like there. In a dissenting opinion of the district court decision Judge Kent Jordan wrote, “The government takes us down a rabbit hole where religious rights are determined by the tax code, with nonprofit corporations able to express religious sentiments while for-profit corporations and their owners are told that business is business and faith is irrelevant. Meanwhile, up on the surface, where people try to live lives of integrity and purpose, that kind of division sounds as hollow as it truly is.”</div>
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But what of Conestoga employees’ “integrity and purpose?” What must they check at the door? While contraception–and abortion, for that matter–are legal, and discrimination against employees for race, gender, disability or religion <a href="http://www.eeoc.gov/laws/statutes/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: black; cursor: pointer; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">is clearly illegal</a>, the question of an employee’s rights is swept away in the structural details of the case.</div>
Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-72374873137864117112013-11-13T10:29:00.002-08:002013-11-13T10:29:41.515-08:00Articles Update.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br />
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I have a new column, “The Patient Body,” at <a href="http://therevealer.org/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-top-width: 0px; color: #06566a; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">The Revealer</a>, a publication of <a href="http://www.crmnyu.org/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-top-width: 0px; color: #06566a; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">The Center for Religion and Media</a> at New York University, where I was editor for three and a half years. When I stepped down in June, I was delighted to initiate the column which examines issues at the intersection of religion and medicine.</div>
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You can read the first installment on assisted suicide, “An Irresistable Force,” <a href="http://therevealer.org/archives/18558" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-top-width: 0px; color: #06566a; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">here</a> and the second on kidney donations, “What’s a Kidney Worth” <a href="http://therevealer.org/archives/18746" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-top-width: 0px; color: #06566a; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">here</a>. The fantastic Kali Handelmann is The Revealer’s new editor; I remain a contributing editor.</div>
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I’ll have an article in the <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">New York Law Review</em> in January 2014 that takes off from my Guernica piece earlier in the year and examines two places in the US where a patient can be fed against their will: a US prison and a Catholic hospital. The article has been a long time coming and is adapted from a talk I gave at the law school last year. I’m excited to see it in print!</div>
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My essay on race, class and hospice use will appear in <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Living With Class: Philosophical Reflections on Identity and Material Culture</em>, a new book edited by Brian Seitz and Ron Scapp (Palgrave Macmillan, December 2013). You can pre-order <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Living with Class</em> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Living-Class-Philosophical-Reflections-Identity/dp/1137326816" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-top-width: 0px; color: #06566a; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">here</a>.</div>
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In September I wrote about a controversy regarding stem cell research and the Vatican for <em style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Religion & Politics</em>. The article, “The Vatican’s New Clothes: Very Small Embryonic-Like Cells and Faith in Evidence Not Seen,” examines new research the Catholic Church invested one million dollars into, VSEL cells that, if properly harnessed, could prevent the use of embryonic stem cells which the church opposes. Scientists have debunked the research, claiming that it is false and ideologically driven. I interviewed leading bioethicists as well as Catholic and non-Catholic opponents of embryonic stem cell research. The piece was picked up by the Sidney Hillman Foundation. You can read it <a href="http://religionandpolitics.org/2013/09/25/the-vaticans-new-clothes-very-small-embryonic-like-cells-and-faith-in-evidence-not-seen/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-top-width: 0px; color: #06566a; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">here</a>.</div>
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From May:</div>
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It’s been exciting to watch a recent article I wrote for Waging Nonviolence (prompted by their brilliant editor, my friend Nathan Schneider) get picked up around the web. <a href="http://wagingnonviolence.org/author/annneumann/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-top-width: 0px; color: #06566a; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">“Guantanamo is not an anomoly”</a> was picked up by <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/author/ann-neumann" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-top-width: 0px; color: #06566a; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Common Dreams</a> and <a href="http://www.salon.com/writer/ann_neumann/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-top-width: 0px; color: #06566a; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Salon</a>!</div>
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After writing about Bill Coleman <a href="http://www.guernicamag.com/features/the-longest-hunger-strike/" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-left-width: 0px; border-right-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(6, 86, 106); border-top-width: 0px; color: #06566a; font-size: 13px; font-weight: 600; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none;">for Guernica magazine</a> in January, I saw the (necessary, exciting) media explosion in April highlighting treatment of Guantanamo prisoners–and wondered why an essential part of the story was missing: force-feedings, considered torture by most of the world, are done in U.S. prisons all the time. That’s, in part, the point of my story on Bill.</div>
</span>Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-4172593103638503012013-03-23T13:39:00.001-07:002013-03-23T13:39:05.699-07:00EOL LinksMichael Cook, editor of BioEdge, the Australian "bioethics" website that likes to think of itself as "pointed" and "edge"-y, <a href="http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/10438" target="_blank">wrote this after the new pope was selected</a> earlier this month, clearly qualifying any positions they may take on bioethics issues as applicable only to... Catholic leadership:<br />
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The fact that about 6,500 journalists were reporting on the white smoke suggests that his ideas on bioethics ought to be taken into account, whether or not you agree with them. I hope that my own sympathies don’t colour the articles in BioEdge.</blockquote>
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Australia continues to have a lively discussion <a href="http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/article/16391531/euthanasia-bill-divides-doctors/" target="_blank">about euthanasia</a>.<br />
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Friend Ashton Applewhite will be giving a talk, "How Ageism Warps Our View of Long Life," at Cooper Union on Monday, April 8th at 6:30. I don't necessarily agree with Ashton's premise but that doesn't mean we shouldn't go. <a href="http://cooper.edu/events-and-exhibitions/events/chair-rocks-how-ageism-warps-our-view-long-life" target="_blank">More details here.</a><br />
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The <i>Journal of General Internal Medicine</i> recently included an article by Amy S. Keller titled, <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-012-2199-x" target="_blank">"Out-of-Pocket Spending In the Last Five Years of Life,"</a> is a goodread! For those banking on Obamacare to clean up our impending crisis regarding end of life care, this will be a call to consider the breadth and depth of social, economic and medical challenges we continue to face. Care at the end of life is surely rationed, but not only by insurance companies. Economic constraints and a failed social commitment to elders and the most vulnerable is catching up with us. (via the excellent <a href="http://www.geripal.org/" target="_blank">GeriPal</a>)<br />
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Speaking of <a href="http://www.geripal.org/" target="_blank">GeriPal</a>, <a href="http://www.geripal.org/2013/03/literature-potpourri.html" target="_blank">their March 21 email</a> included this fascinating tidbit:<br />
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AAHPM decided to keep the "H" (for hospice), as reported by Tim Quill in the fall AAHPM quarterly (<a href="http://www.aahpm.org/learn/default/bulletin.html" id="yui_3_7_2_1_1364004044496_29963" rel="nofollow" style="color: #000099; font-weight: bold; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1364005075_11">online for members only</span></a>). See this previous <a href="http://www.geripal.org/2011/10/take-h-out-of-aahpmhpna-lets-discuss.html" rel="nofollow" style="color: #000099; font-weight: bold; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">post </a>introducing the controversy. The process of deciding about the "H" was thoughtfully done, including focus groups and a member survey. Only 11% of members responded (guilty as charged) but 87% of those who responded felt the current name describes "who we are and what we do."</blockquote>
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For those of you who haven't been watching the discussion, the H has been contested by some who felt that hospice was too strongly associated with death and therefor tainting the care and benefits of the rest of the organization... palliative care. Long there has been a move to make palliative care an overall standard of care for every patient. The fact that it has in some ways come out of the hospice movement, some felt, conveyed to the public that palliative care was really only for the dying. Essentially, it was a bit of a branding conversation.<br />
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Don't miss Aanand D. Naik's argument, also at GeriPal, of <a href="http://us-mg5.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=8d0d3qno1lfe6" target="_blank">"Why Choosing Wisely Will Have Limited Success."</a> The Choosing Wisely campaign is aimed at doctors, whose "decisions ultimately account for for over 80% of all health care expenditures."<br />
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Elizabeth Dzeng writes at "The Health Care Blog" about a recent case that illustrates how the Hippocratic call to "do no harm" is often confused with "do everything," <a href="http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2013/03/21/hippocratic-hypocrisy-when-it-comes-to-cp/?utm_source=THCB+Merge&utm_campaign=8fbedca564-First_Do_Net_Harm_10_16_2012&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">"Hippocratic Hypocrisy: When it Comes to CPR, Is Less Care Actually Better"</a>:<br />
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Doctors at another hospital said there was nothing more they could do, but his family desperately wanted him to live so they brought him to our hospital.<br />The fistulas in his abdomen were so large, his bowels were open to the air. Blood frequently gushed out of his wounds, necessitating blood transfusions and other desperate measures. The only way to stop the bleeding was to push hard on these wounds, which inflicted excruciating pain. Despite these aggressive treatments, there was no hope of long-term survival.<br /> His family was not ready to let him go and so they told us to take any measures possible to keep him alive. In order to do this, I would have to crack his ribs during chest compressions and electrocute him in an attempt to restart his heart. Regardless of whether we could keep the heart beating, the rest of his body would still be irreparably consumed by cancer. This was, in my view, the wrong choice from an ethical and clinical perspective. It was anguishing to be forced to inflict this sort of violence on this dying man. How could I uphold my oath to do no harm when I knew he was leading a tortuous existence, and yet I was instructed by his family to keep him alive and in this state?</blockquote>
Read the rest of Dzeng's brilliant article, then catch this one from today's <i>New York Times</i> about the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/23/health/fda-seeks-to-toughen-defibrillator-regulations.html?_r=0" target="_blank">FDA and regulation of defibrillators</a>. Clearly the author is contributing to the public's belief that resuscitation, whether by manual CPR and/or defibrillators, is guaranteed recovery.<br />
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The devices, which can be found in malls, airports, casinos and churches in addition to medical settings, re-establish cardiac rhythms in patients whose hearts have abruptly stopped or lost their regular beats. Such cardiac arrests kill as many as 400,000 people a year in the United States, according to the American Heart Association, more deaths than caused by Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and accidents combined.</blockquote>
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Did "automatic external" defibrillator manufacturers pay for this plug? Ok, just kidding.<br />
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Also at The Health Care Blog, Elaine Warples talks about impending death, <a href="http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/2013/03/21/truth-at-the-end-of-life/?utm_source=THCB+Merge&utm_campaign=8fbedca564-First_Do_Net_Harm_10_16_2012&utm_medium=email" target="_blank">"Truth at the End of Life."</a><br />
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At his Medical Futility Blog, Thaddeus Pope points us to three upcoming presentations on <a href="http://medicalfutility.blogspot.com/2013/03/awareness-in-vegetative-state-3.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MedicalFutilityBlog+%28Medical+Futility+Blog%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail" target="_blank">consciousness in persistent vegetative state patients</a>. The issue is particularly appealing to those who oppose the removal of artificial life support from persistent vegetative state patients like Terri Schiavo, including the Catholic Church leadership. <br />
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Remember when coverage for voluntary advanced care planning was removed from Obamacare without so much as a struggle? <a href="http://medicalfutility.blogspot.com/2013/03/hr-1173-medicare-coverage-for-advance.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MedicalFutilityBlog+%28Medical+Futility+Blog%29&utm_content=Yahoo%21+Mail" target="_blank">Representative Blumenauer has introduced HR 1173</a> to institute coverage for such planning with a physician into the Social Security Act, via Medicare. Blumenauer is from Oregon, where Death with Dignity is legal, and has been a constant advocate for end of life issues. (also via my smart friend Thaddeus Pope at <a href="http://medicalfutility.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Medical Futility Blog</a>)<br />
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British Columbia's federal court is hearing an aid in dying appeal case right now. Here's one ruffling headline: <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/03/20/bc-assisted-suicide-ruling-appeal-day-3.html" target="_blank">"Banning assisted suicide akin to 'torture'"</a><br />
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Former governor of Washington State, Booth Gardner has died. He was a champion of aid in dying. Gardner was 76 and died of Parkinson's disease. Read more <a href="http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=13&articleid=20130317_11_A14_OLYMPI998403" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.spokanevalleyonline.com/articles_svnews/2013/032213_Booth%20Gardner,%2019th%20governor%20of%20Washington,%20dies%20at%2076.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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<a href="http://www.lifenews.com/2013/03/18/belgium-becomes-world-leader-in-harvesting-organs-after-euthanasia/" target="_blank">"Belgium Becomes World Leader in Harvesting Organs after Euthanasia,"</a> writes hyperbolic LifeNews. Well duh. Euthanasia's basically only legal in Belgium and a couple US states. While methods of "harvesting"organs can be controversial, this piece is too ideological to be helpful to the discussion.<br />
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<br />Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-21137047521180440272013-01-19T11:17:00.000-08:002013-01-19T12:33:27.015-08:00The Longest Hunger StrikeFor the past year, I've been researching the case of William Coleman, a Connecticut prisoner who hasn't eaten solid food in more than five years. Bill is hunger striking to bring attention to what he says is a wrongful conviction. When his health becomes dire, the prison medical staff force feed him.<br />
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Last week Guernica Magazine published my article, <a href="http://www.guernicamag.com/features/the-longest-hunger-strike/" target="_blank">"The Longest Hunger Strike,"</a>which was edited by the amazing journalist Jina Moore. I'm delighted that <a href="http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=1854296747731744c923a33ef&id=4429adbdbb&utm_source=buffer&buffer_share=ec345" target="_blank">Longreads</a> and <a href="http://www.hillmanfoundation.org/blog/sidneys-picks-black-market-boner-pills-bloomberg-and-upper-big-branch-mine" target="_blank">The Sidney Hillman Foundation</a> have picked up the story. </div>
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Here's a clip:<br />
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“I would add, for what it’s worth:” Appel continued, “Once in my life, I put a feeding tube in someone who didn’t want it.” An elderly person had, when competent, said that he wanted everything done to continue his life. Then he became demented.<br />
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“Ethically, it wasn’t a transgression—we were honoring his wishes—but practically it was one of the most unpleasant things I’ve done in my life. I would never do it again, even if somebody wanted me to.”<br />
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“Tell me how unpleasant,” I said.<br />
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“Rape is actually a very reasonable analogy. You feel like you’re physically protruding… putting something in someone’s body they are actively resisting. Eventually somebody has to hold them down. It turns your stomach.”
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<a href="http://www.guernicamag.com/features/the-longest-hunger-strike/" target="_blank">Go read the whole thing at Guernica Magazine.</a></div>
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Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-36065759636488509192012-11-11T17:09:00.001-08:002012-11-11T17:09:05.392-08:00New York Law School Symposium on End of LifeI'm speaking at a fantastic symposium at New York Law School on Friday. You really should come by!<br />
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<a href="http://www.nyls.edu/centers/harlan_scholar_centers/justice_action_center/annual_conferences/end_of_life" target="_blank">Here are the details:</a><br />
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Symposium: Freedom of Choice at the End of Life<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana;" /><small style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana;"><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-style: italic;">Patients' Rights in a Shifting Legal and Political Landscape</em></small></h1>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">A Justice Action Center Symposium<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />Friday, November 16, 2012<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />New York Law School</strong></div>
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<em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-style: italic;">Cosponsored with the </em><a href="http://www.nylslawreview.com/" style="color: #3d87b9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; outline-color: initial !important; outline-style: none !important; outline-width: initial !important; text-decoration: none;">New York Law School Law Review</a><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-style: italic;"> and the <a href="http://www.nyls.edu/centers/projects/diane_abbey_law_center_for_children_and_families/" style="color: #3d87b9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; outline-color: initial !important; outline-style: none !important; outline-width: initial !important; text-decoration: none;">Diane Abbey Law Center for Children and Families</a></em></div>
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<em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-style: italic;">Additional support provided by the American Bar Association Commission on Law and Aging; the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys; the Elder Law Section of the New York State Bar Association; Compassion and Choices of New York; and Collaborative for Palliative Care, Westchester/NYS Southern Region</em></div>
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The concept that individuals have the right to choose the manner and time of their death and the right to decline unwanted treatment has been a relatively recent development, as is the law that a person does not lose these rights upon incapacity. Individual rights are not uniformly recognized in practice, however, and there are many limits on when and how they can be enforced. This conference will address a broad range of issues including impediments to honoring those rights, advance planning tools for persons to ensure compliance with their choices and how to enforce them, legislative and decisional developments, surrogate decision-making for patients whose wishes are not known, pain management and palliative care, hospice, aid in dying, ethical dilemmas in decision-making, medical ineffectiveness of treatment (“futility”), concerns of persons with disabilities, the effect of religion on law and policy, and how the media treats these issues.</div>
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If you have questions about this program please contact <a href="mailto:JAC@nyls.edu?subject=Elder%20Law%20Symposium" style="color: #3d87b9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; outline-color: initial !important; outline-style: none !important; outline-width: initial !important; text-decoration: none;">JAC@nyls.edu</a>.</div>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">CONTINUING LEGAL EDUCATION</strong></div>
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This program has been approved for a maximum of six (6) credits of continuing legal education (CLE) credit in professional practice for both transitional and non-transitional attorneys. There is no charge for CLE above and beyond the normal cost of registration.</div>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">REGISTRATION</strong></div>
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Conference registration is now open. <a href="https://nyls.wufoo.com/forms/elder-law-symposium/" style="color: #3d87b9; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; outline-color: initial !important; outline-style: none !important; outline-width: initial !important; text-decoration: none;">Click here to register now</a>.</div>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">CONFERENCE SCHEDULE</strong></div>
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<em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-style: italic;">All events will take place in the Event Center, New York Law School</em></div>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">8:15am–9:00am<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />Check-in for pre-registered guests</strong><br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana;" />Continental breakfast will be available in the Event Center.</div>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">9:00am–9:45am<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />Welcome</strong></div>
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<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Peter J. Strauss</strong>, Symposium Chair, Adjunct Professor, New York Law School</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Kathryn L. Tucker, JD</strong>, Director of Legal Affairs, Compassion & Choices, Adjunct Professor of Law, Loyola Law School/Los Angeles</li>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">9:45am–11:00am<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />Panel I: Taking Control and Preserving Autonomy</strong><br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana;" />This panel will discuss the need for advance planning and one’s rights to do so, available advance directive tools: health care proxies, living wills, POLST (MOLST); enforcement of patient rights and emerging issues, trends and new legislation.<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana;" /><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-style: italic;">Attendees at this panel are eligible for 1 CLE credit in professional practice.</em></div>
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<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Moderator: <strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Peter J. Strauss</strong>, Symposium Chair, Adjunct Professor, New York Law School</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Nadia N. Sawicki</strong>, Assistant Professor, Beazley Institute for Health Law & Policy, Loyola University Chicago School of Law</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Lisa Comeau</strong>, Attorney, Appellate Counsel</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">David C. Leven</strong>, Executive Director, Compassion and Choices of New York</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Mary Beth Morrissey, Esq., Ph.D., M.P.H.</strong>; President, Collaborative for Palliative Care, Westchester/NYS Southern Region</li>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">11:00am–11:15am<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />Break</strong></div>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">11:15am–1:00pm<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />Panel II: Real Time Critical Issues</strong><br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana;" />This panel will explore best practices in End of Life Care: palliative care, pain management, the “double effect”, hospice and transitional care. In addition, the panel will discuss the conflict between family and physician over medically ineffective treatment (“futility”) and the ethics of decision making for persons with dementia.<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana;" /><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-style: italic;">Attendees at this panel are eligible for 2 CLE credits in professional practice.</em></div>
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<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Moderator: <strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Carlin Meyer</strong>, Director, the Diane Abbey Law Center for Children and Families, Professor, New York Law School</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">David Muller, M.D.</strong>, Professor of Medicine and Dean for Medical Education, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York; Director, Visiting Doctors Program</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Gabrielle Goldberg, M.D.</strong>, Assistant Professor, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York; Education Director, Hertzberg Palliative Care Institute</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Thaddeus M. Pope, JD, Ph.D.</strong>, Director, Health Law Institute at Hamline University, Adjunct Associate Professor, Albany Medical College</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Bonnie Steinbock, Ph.D.</strong>, Professor of Philosophy, University at Albany/SUNY</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Paul T. Menzel</strong>, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Pacific Lutheran University</li>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">1:00pm–2:15pm<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />Lunch and Keynote Speaker</strong><br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana;" /><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-style: italic;">Attendees at this panel are eligible for 1 CLE credit in professional practice.</em></div>
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<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Introduction: <strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Peter J. Strauss</strong>, Symposium Chair, Adjunct Professor, New York Law School</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Honorable Sol Wachtler</strong>, former Chief Judge, New York State Court of Appeals</li>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">2:15pm–4:15pm<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />Panel III: Special People, Special Issues</strong><br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana;" />This panel will discuss the issues of concern for people with disabilities and the conflict between organizations dedicated to protecting their rights and end-of-life advocates. The panel will discuss the views of some of the major religion and whether conservative theological values can co-exist with patient choice. Finally, the panel will conclude with a discussion of the quality of medical care provided to prisoners and how their end of life choices are treated.<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana;" /><em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-style: italic;">Attendees at this panel are eligible for 2 CLE credit in professional practice.</em></div>
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<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">Moderator: <strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Sue D. Porter</strong>, Compassion and Choices</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Alicia Ouellette</strong>, Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Professor of Law, Albany Law School; Professor of Bioethics at Union Graduate College/Mt. Sinai School of Medicine Program in Bioethics</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Rev. Dr. Martha R. Jacobs, BCC</strong>, Adjunct Professor, New York Theological Seminary; Chaplain, New York Presbyterian Hospital - Columbia Campus; Author, A Clergy Guide to End of Life Issues; Blogger: Huffington Post</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Ann Neumann</strong>, Editor, The Revealer, The Center for Religion and Media, New York University</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Honorable Brian Fischer</strong>, Commissioner, New York State Department of Corrections</li>
<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Carl J. Koenigsman, M.D.</strong>, Deputy Commissioner and Chief Medical Officer, New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision</li>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">4:15pm–4:45pm<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />Plenary Session: How the Media Affects Policy and Individual Rights, From Schiavo to Death Squads</strong></div>
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<li style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 5px; margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">Sherrie Dulworth, R.N.</strong>, Healthcare Management Consultant and Freelance Reporter</li>
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<strong style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;">4:45pm–5:00pm<br style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-weight: bold;" />Closing Remarks</strong></div>
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<em style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, Verdana; font-style: italic;">Reception to follow</em></div>
Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-86685881081383428982012-07-07T15:00:00.001-07:002012-07-07T15:00:36.101-07:00Quick Links: You should be reading...It's been one hell of a long spring, one unnaturally stretched to the front edge of July by a conference at work and a conference in Chicago. The later was the product of efforts by Compassion & Choices to gather and motivate the troops (the former was a gathering of religion and media luminaries hosted by my employer, NYU). In Chicago I got to hang out with some of the folks who are busy working at the intersections of faith, advocacy, ethics and medicine. The trip out there payed off in a chance to cavort with people I've been in touch with since I started paying attention to end of life issues, participation and attendance of some informative panels, a new research location for my book, and one particularly interesting panel invitation (NY Law School, I'll keep you posted).<br />
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As I prepare to head out on a longer research trip in a few weeks (Montana, Seattle, LA) and, god willing, getting some rest after two whirlwind work years, I'll be hanging out here more often. I hope you'll join me.<br />
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And while you're at it, read Bill Peace's comment to my prior post! Bill and I are friends; he's disabled and I'm not; we disagree on a number of things--and not always respectfully, of course--but we keep the friendship going. My response to his comment is: What--legislatively, practically, pragmatically--does his experience as a discriminated member of society have to do with the legalization of aid in dying (or even removal of terminal patients from unhelpful treatments, etc)? <br />
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I think I know what Bill's answer would be. Discrimination is real and so is fear. People confuse and conflate disability with terminality all the time. I would never take him to task for how he feels. Or over not seizing his autonomy from hypothetical others, including "pro-life" organizations that have worked very hard to recruit disabled individuals and groups to "their side"--with scary threats of a "culture of death" just waiting around to kill off the "abnormal." But--and this is really, really important to my point--Bill's had to fight his entire life to make his own health care decisions, to convince everybody that his pain and his life are worth something to him. Individuals wanting to do the same are no threat to Bill.<br />
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Some good links I came across this week:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.geripal.org/2012/07/how-do-you-explain-hospice.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Geripal+%28GeriPal%29" target="_blank">Alex Smith at GeriPal</a> on how to explain what hospice is new medical students, interns...<br />
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<a href="http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10148#comments" target="_blank">What's wrong with eradicating breast cancer in newborns?</a> <a href="http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10149#comments" target="_blank">Or Down Syndrome?</a> I want a real answer that doesn't romanticize disability and doesn't compromise the respect given to those currently living with disability.<br />
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<a href="http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2012/07/should-minimally-conscious-patients-be-allowed-to-end-their-lives/" target="_blank">Simon Rippon at The University of Oxford</a> tries to pull apart the three strands of what we now call persistent vegetative state (PVS): "locked in," minimally conscious, and PVS. The reason for his diligence? To ask who can end their life.<br />
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The August issue of the <a href="http://journals.lww.com/jhpn/pages/currenttoc.aspx" target="_blank">Journal of Hospice and Palliative Nursing</a> is now available. Note that you don't have to subscribe or be a member, you can purchase individual articles.<br />
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Don't miss the recent flare-ups about aid in dying <a href="http://www.canada.com/news/Canadian+doctors+wrestling+with+issues+around+medically+assisted+suicide/6856935/story.html" target="_blank">in Canada</a> (and <a href="http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Medical+journal+calls+euthanasia+debate/6840671/story.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/247096.php" target="_blank">here</a>).<br />
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<br />Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-85621022705261269862012-06-11T17:25:00.001-07:002012-06-11T17:38:26.904-07:00When the Dying Want to DieI had dinner with a friend last night. I'll call her Erin. I met her nearly two years ago when I sat down at the bar of one of my favorite Red Hook eateries, desperate for food and drink, late in the evening, tired. She was next to me and we struck up a conversation about her father's very recent death. Erin had been one of his primary care givers and it had taken a toll on her. Now two years later, she was two years into caring for her dying mother. A one-two punch if the process of dying weren't so long, more like a great deflation. Last night we both remarked on how slow death can be, how much it can take--from the dying, from the care-giving--on it's seemingly endless path to an end. Gone are privacy, pride, simple abilities like reading, eating, sleeping, walking. We think of deaths as a sudden trauma; it's more like a slow tapping of every resource necessary to keep a person going. It's heartbreaking to watch; more so even to facilitate. Erin feels like her own life is on hold while she feeds, bathes and supports her mother; I encouraged her to mentally integrate these months and years back into her life. She may not be doing some of the things she wants to be doing, but this time counts as hers nonetheless.<br />
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We also talked about her mother's constant request to die. Repeatedly she asks Erin to help her end her life. I tell you this because Erin's so good about it. She can joke with her mother, she can be witty, she can talk about death without the saccharine euphemisms that are typically used: transitions, final wishes, quality of life, passing on. Erin knows her mother is going to be dead. And she knows that she can't even think about her mother's request, she'd go to jail. Not that Erin would certainly be able to help her mother anyway. Most of us don't know what we're capable of until we are in the moment of having to do it. I also tell you about Erin because there's a reason it's called mercy killing, an unfortunate mash of words that minces nothing. We're pretty good at walking by suffering every day. In the city I am constantly faced with homelessness, desperation, addiction, hunger. But when we see that pain on the face of someone we're close to, we feel helpless. We begin to understand that morality and ethics are not absolute, as we're told they are. We begin to see the ways in which law and justice are really one-size-fits-all guides in a world of exceptions and ridiculous horror.<br />
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I tell you about Erin because I see on her face every time we get together the insult of a long and ugly death. The intolerable pain of watching pain work over someone we love without reservation.<br />
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Today <a href="http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/06/08/woman-65-pleads-not-guilty-in-orange-county-assisted-suicide/">this story</a> came across my screen. I'll post the whole thing because it is so sadly brief, so infuriatingly lacking of details:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2c2d2e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
<blockquote>
A 65-year-old woman has pleaded not guilty to helping an elderly man kill himself by mixing a lethal dose of drugs in his yogurt.<br />
Orange County prosecutors say Elizabeth Barrett entered the plea in Superior Court on Friday. She is due back in court on Aug. 10.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2c2d2e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;">Barrett is charged with illegally assisting in the Sept. 30 suicide of Jack Koency, an 86-year-old World War II veteran who lived in a nearby retirement complex.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2c2d2e; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 23px;"><br /></span></span>Orange County prosecutors say Elizabeth Barrett entered the plea in Superior Court on Friday. She is due back in court on Aug. 10.<br />
Barrett is charged with illegally assisting in the Sept. 30 suicide of Jack Koency, an 86-year-old World War II veteran who lived in a nearby retirement complex.<br />
Prosecutors say the Laguna Woods resident drove Koency to a cremation provider before heading back to his apartment, where she crushed a lethal amount of painkiller pills into yogurt that he ate. Authorities say Koency then went into his bedroom, laid down and died.<br />
A message was left for Barrett’s attorney Daryl Anthony.</blockquote>
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<br />
The picture of Elizabeth Barrett is cruel. She looks exhausted, angry, sad, lost--all at once. It's a face of grief. We don't know anything about her relationship with Jack Koency, how long they'd known one another. We don't know if Koency, like Erin's mother, asked to die. Did he suggest the pills in the yogurt? Did he write a letter? Did he have family? What were Koency's symptoms? Was he sick? Mentally sick? In pain? Actively dying? And what's the definition of assisted suicide? Suicide? The word smacks of "do something to save him" and "crisis hotline" and "intervention" but do these reactions suit Elizabeth Barrett and Jack Koency's situation? We may never know.<br />
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What we do know is that dying is getting harder and harder to do. Medicine has gotten very good at keeping people alive, but what we mean by alive has drastically changed. So many of the simple illnesses that once took the dying off to their end are now easily addressed--the rampant infection, the pneumonia, the unsound heart, the swelling fluids of angina, stopping eating, stopping breathing--that a body can be kept in the sad, excruciating state of dying for years.<br />
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There are alternatives to a long and painful death. Hospice, advanced directives, living wills. All are now under attack from predominantly religious organizations that would have us think their objective is to protect the vulnerable. And yet, sometimes the vulnerable don't want or need protection that smacks of paternalism, of self-pride, of righteousness. Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Compassion & Choices, points us to a <a href="http://blog.compassionandchoices.org/?cat=27">Georgia bill, HB 1114</a>, that would further limit the efficacy of patients' stated requests for intervention (or removal thereof).<br />
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<a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/161478/catholic-church-amps-its-fight-against-aid-dying">I wrote a year ago</a> that, as with creeping restrictions on abortion, end of life rights--nationally accepted methods of preserving patients' choice of medical intervention and removal--would soon be in the sights of "prolife" groups floundering for ways to, if not stop the growing acceptance of aid in dying and its legalization, prevent access to it. In such a zealous attempt to influence the morals of others, however sincere the desire is to protect patients in danger of abuse, the rights of so many are being wiped away. How much pain can a person stand? Who decides? What does it mean to be alive? How do we know what we want in the face of physical pain? Emotional pain? Can wishing to die be a wish that comes from a mentally sound person? The human rights of the dying demand that we ask these questions, the very questions that Erin and her mother ask themselves and each other every day.Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-41127080106044830212012-06-11T02:56:00.001-07:002012-06-11T02:56:43.432-07:00Very Quick Links<a href="http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1663996020001_2116085,00.html">Joe Klein talking about</a> his new cover story for Time Magazine, "How to Die."<br />
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<a href="http://www.lhj.com/community/your-stories/hospice-nurse/">Ladies' Home Journal's Diana K. Sugg</a> does a great story on what it's like to be a hospice nurse. Of course it's got the LHJ style (you know it, saccharine nice--"gentle grounded spirit"?!--perfect for a story like this), but it also commendably picks up and debunks some long-standing misconceptions about hospice:<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17px;">Others, unnecessarily worried about drug addiction, won't give their sick relative pain medicine when it's needed. And some patients are afraid of taking morphine, thinking it will stop their breathing or make them feel out of it. "Did you take the medicine?" Campbell asks a cancer patient, who is holding her rib cage in agony. Campbell squats beside the hesitant woman and assures her she'll stay with her while she takes it, to make sure she's okay. The patient is worried she'll just sleep away the time she has left, but pain medicine often allows a person to feel better and actually do more.</span><br />
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Don't miss the accompanying photo essay by Monica Lopossay.<br />
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It looks like those who <a href="http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=9421">support aid in dying/euthanasia in Russia</a> come from the same demographic as supporters in the U.S.<br />
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<a href="http://us.mg4.mail.yahoo.com/neo/launch?.rand=7t3p012104msq">GeriPal points us</a> to a post by <a href="http://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/at-the-end-a-rush-to-the-e-r/">Paula Span at the NY Times</a> New Old Age blog that highlights a new study done in party by two GeriPal writers for Health Affairs, <a href="http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/31/6/1277.abstract">"Half of Older Americans Seen In Emergency Department In Last Month of Life; Most Admitted to Hospital, And Many Die There."</a> I don't think these findings surprise anyone watching EOL and hospice issues. But it does confirm what we've all been wringing our hands about: hospitals are dangerous, particularly for elders; there has to be a better way to meet the health care needs of the dying; that is cheaper, more friendly and more comfortable.<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #6f7074; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">“It’s really traumatic to watch anybody die. I’ve been with my parents and grandparents, but this is different. This is healthy people,” Pickett said. “It’s legalized murder.” <a href="http://www.obit-mag.com/articles/what-good-has-death-done">From Obit's recent article by Natalie Pompilio</a> on Rev. Carroll "Bud" Pickett, a former death row chaplain.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><a href="http://journals.lww.com/jhpn/pages/currenttoc.aspx">The July issue of The Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing</a> is out. I'm looking forward to reading a piece on depression in patients with terminal illnesses, "As if the Cancer Wasn't Enough."</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Barbara Combs Lee writes about how the Catholic Church and Right to Life organizations in Georgia endangered patient autonomy and choice there with a new bill HB 1114:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;">The bulk of the bill — 37 lines — frets over patient decision-making and medical treatment in minute detail. It focuses on doctors more than the voyeurs and predators that endanger society. The new law repeatedly specifies that any withholding, withdrawing, prescribing, administering or dispensing must be solely intended and calculated to relieve symptoms and never to cause death. Some tried to allow treatment that “eases the dying process,” but the lawmakers deemed that language too permissive and generous.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px;"><br /></span></span><br />
Solitary Watch points us to a new series on prison deaths in Arizona, by Bob Ortega of the Arizona Republic. You can read the first one here, on <a href="http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/06/02/20120602arizona-prison-deaths-system.html#ixzz1wkUZISIF">the "second death row," solitary confinement</a>, where 37 inmates have committed suicide over the past two years.<br />
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<br />Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-90963498371548187242012-04-22T15:54:00.000-07:002012-04-22T15:54:47.902-07:00Some LinksDon't miss <a href="http://www.geripal.org/p/blogs-to-boards.html">GeriPal's great series</a> on prep questions for the hospice and palliative care boards. They're insightful and have generated some fantastic discussion.<br />
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A few Hawaii doctors are saying that their state's laws allow Death with Dignity, the prescription of lethal drugs to terminal patients. Read more about the <a href="http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/04/16/prsd0417.htm">legal ambiguity in Hawaii</a> at amednews.com and at <a href="https://www.compassionandchoices.org/hawaii">Compassion & Choices</a>.<br />
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More discussion on <a href="http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/bioethics/bioethics_article/10025#comments">the usefulness of "human dignity" in bioethics</a>.<br />
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Mario Beauregard has a fascinating piece at Salon on <a href="http://www.salon.com/2012/04/21/near_death_explained/singleton/">near death experiences</a>.<br />
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Read Ronald Dworkin's long article at New York Review of Books on <a href="http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/may/10/why-mandate-constitutional-real-argument/">why the mandate is constitutional</a>.<br />
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James Gorman asks at The New York times what consciousness means. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/science/studying-states-of-consciousness.html">"Awake or knocked out? The Line Gets Blurrier."</a><br />
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<br />Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-44316000686970962262012-04-15T15:19:00.004-07:002012-04-15T15:35:42.424-07:00Do Americans Balk at Euthanasia?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;">Last week </span><i style="line-height: 20px; ">The New York Times</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"> got eight panelists together to answer the question, "Why do Americans Balk at Euthanasia?" It's a loaded question. </span><i style="line-height: 20px; ">Do</i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"> Americans balk at euthanasia? Statistically, the answer is a fairly hearty no. And what do you mean by euthanasia? Death with Dignity, as legalized in Washington since 2008 and Oregon since 1994? Aid in dying, assisted suicide, passive euthanasia, active euthanasia. Of course the definition of the term itself is loaded in the U.S. in a way that it isn't in, say Europe.</span><div style="line-height: 20px; "><br /></div><div style="line-height: 20px; ">At least the panel has some breadth, with Rita L. Marker and Margaret Dore holding down the antis and Jacob Appel and Philip Nitschke holding down the pros. There's enough in between to keep it interesting, and the panel gets more than one non-U.S. voice in there too.</div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><br /></div><div style="line-height: 20px; ">Here's what I have to say about the entries:</div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><br /></div><div style="line-height: 20px; ">Marcia Angell of Harvard Medical School give us the landscape. Where euthanasia is legal, via Death with Dignity laws, it is supported. She gives us two reasons why it's more controversial here in the U.S.: the Catholic Church (which, I might add, operates 1/5 of all hospital beds in the nation, according to their own Vatican-written laws, thanks to conscience clauses that let them skirt state and federal regulation); and our health care system. She posits that the "<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">any practice that might save money raises the specter of rationing." While this is true of media commotion, the fact remains that statistics out of Washington and Oregon show that Death with Dignity laws prevent abuse. And I might add, save lives. When a state's population has had a public conversation about end of life issues, the use of advanced directives, living wills, POLST, and hospice all increase. And educated public, as they say....</span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">Marilyn Golden of Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund writes under the title, "Too Many Flaws in the Law." She sites the case of Barbara Wagner as proof that insurance companies are keen on depriving ill patients of life-saving treatments. You can read my analysis of <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news/143065/why_it's_a_good_idea_for_the_well-off_to_share_their_health_care_with_the_rest_of_us?page=2" style="color: rgb(85, 136, 170); text-decoration: none; ">rationing and the Wagner case here</a>. In short, Wagner didn't get the experimental drug she wanted because it had less than a 5% chance of lengthening her life. Golden is right to point out that diagnoses are not accurate but her pounding of "doctor-prescribed suicide" shows that she's not too willing to discuss how Death with Dignity is working or even to discuss the horrors of being caught between incurable pain and death. As well, it's been fascinating to watch the disability rights groups in the U.S. rally (or be rallied) by anti-euthanasia group. To my mind, patient autonomy (whether that patient is disabled or terminal) should be our social objective. Making the disabled afraid of their doctors isn't really the best advocacy. Yes, the disabled have a history of being treated like half-citizens. But removing patient autonomy from the conversation doesn't change that. Golden also warns that the existing laws are rife with bad reporting and that they subject patients to abuse. It would be much easier to find her argument reasoned if she sited unbiased sources.</span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">Petra de Jong of Right to Die Netherlands notes that "euthanasia and assisted suicide can only be legalized </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">in a country with optimum health care, including palliative care. But most of all, with citizens having access to good health care, regardless of their income." Valid point. If Compassion & Choices (the largest aid in dying advocacy group in the U.S.) wishes to advocate for Death with Dignity laws at the federal level--as a humanitarian right--they'll have to address the fact that those using it currently are predominantly rich, well-educated, and white. Does the U.S. need better health care. Yes, yes, yes. Should that preclude those who are terminal, thoroughly screened by their doctor, and in pain from getting a prescription for a drug that will end their life? I'm not so sure.</span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">Patricia King of Georgetown Law and Johns Hopkins make the very important point that "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">the poor, the disabled, the elderly and members of racial and ethnic minorities -- worry that if assisted suicide becomes widely available they will be viewed as “throwaway people.” They fear coercion, stigmatization and discrimination, understandably believing that the societal indifference prevalent throughout their lives will also infect their end-of-life care." Important because I'm not sure there are statistics that back this up but also because she reminds us that whether the fear is real or not, it must be treated as legitimate. If you got the short end of the stick repeatedly during life, what's to convince you that you won't also get it in death? That's a powerful life lesson. And politically, it's a charged argument with legs.</span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">Rita L. Marker has a lot of scary but inaccurate stats. She forgets that failed bills intended to protect minorities (in this case, those who just don't want to hurt anymore) are a poor sign of justice in our ancient democracy. Democracy has seldom stood up for minorities. One point that Marker misses again and again is that Death with Dignity laws allow a system of discussing end of life wishes with patients and tracking their deaths. Medicine is not exact. The body is unpredictable. But how many deaths do you think occur outside of Washington and Oregon that would call <a href="http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/double-effect/" style="color: rgb(85, 136, 170); text-decoration: none; ">the double effect</a> into question? Transparency is what Death with Dignity brings. So long as we continue to treat death (and any conversation about it or any preparation for it) like a taboo (a tack that many anti-euthanasia groups pursue) we'll be doing our loved ones a disservice. Put down your "culture of death," Rita, and step away from the computer.</span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><br /></span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">And then there's Margaret Dore. I've spent a good number of hours on the phone with Dore. She's convinced that elders are will be murdered as soon as aid in dying becomes legal, despite the fact that no such thing is happening in Washington and Oregon. Dore is right on two things though: elder abuse is real and alarming. But it's been taking place in every state for far too long and ranges from petty theft to physical and sexual abuse. But that horrible state of our elder care system just isn't due to Death with Dignity. The second point Dore makes, by naming her new non-profit "Choice is an Illusion," is correct. The choice and autonomy language that ushered in the women's rights movement of the 70s and 80s has inadvertently silenced any conversation about community, shared responsibility, and social ethics. It's painted patients' rights conversations into a corner. Otherwise, Dore uses an anecdote about her friend's unexpected recovery to stand in for all other statistics. Yes, miracles happen. Yes, sometimes treatments can turn around a diagnosis. But much more often, terminal diagnoses err on the longer side, drugs are horrendously painful, and patients have more peace if they can talk about what's coming.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><br /></span></span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-size:13px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">Philip Nitschke writes, that the right to aid in dying won't broadly be legalized in the U.S. until Americans reclaim "control over one's body from God." </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">Jacob Appel warns that the public perception of what euthanasia is and how it works has been poisoned by "pro-life" parties and those who are busy fighting the "culture wars."</span></div></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-size:13px;"><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 24px; font-family:georgia, 'times new roman', times, serif;">What most of these panelists do not stress strongly enough that the dying are desperate. Our system is broken. Pain alleviation is woefully, distressingly behind the times. Our current medical system pushes terminal patients from one aggressive treatment to the next without thought to the torture that they are causing. That's why patients in hospice live longer than those who aren't. The public conversation that comes from a sober discussion of end of life care far outweighs the opportunities for abuse that opponents would like to scare us with. Furthermore, the general medical apparatus that we are all subject to today makes more on a live being than it does a dead one. Euthanasia is a polarizing issue that directly affects a minute number of patients each year--where it's legal. But it's political affects are enormous. And at the moment, those political affects are serving profit-driven parties that oppose real health care reform.</span></div></span>Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-35761691563225905772012-04-15T13:59:00.002-07:002012-04-15T14:03:39.657-07:00Intubated Women<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">Last week I was on a panel at NYU titled, "The Gender and Sexual Politics of End of Life Care," <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px; ">an event hosted by NYU’s The Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, along with Amber Hollibaugh, Susan Gerbino and Ai-jen Poo, brilliant women doing phenomenal work in the areas of LGBT rights, palliative care and domestic workers’ rights. <a href="http://therevealer.org/archives/10996">Click here to read the (rather rough) text of my talk</a>, which addresses Catholic hospitals and the use of feeding tubes.</span></span>Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-76277111940955055612012-03-22T05:38:00.002-07:002012-03-22T06:19:32.333-07:00I'm in Old School.It's been fairly quiet around here for a while but it will be particularly so the next four days. I've gone uptown to hang out with a bunch of other end of life writers at the Age Boom Academy, an extensive seminar that is a joint project between Columbia Journalism School, The New York Times and AARP. You wouldn't believe the experience and reach of my fellow attendees. <br /><br />For more information on the academy, go <a href="http://www.nytco.com/company/foundation/immersion_age_intro.html">here</a>, <a href="http://www.healthjournalism.org/secondarypage-details.php?id=128">here</a> and <a href="http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/endnotes/tags/age-boom-academy/">here</a>.Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-27832472209534885872012-03-18T11:58:00.001-07:002012-03-18T12:02:16.648-07:00Ann on the TeeVeeYou can catch me talking with NY-1 News about the Catholic Church and its laity here:<div>http://manhattan.ny1.com/content/top_stories/156458/local-catholics-sometimes-deviate-from-cardinal-dolan-s-social-positions</div>Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-80045429024202123492012-02-09T17:57:00.000-08:002012-02-09T18:02:14.580-08:00The Conscience Clause: It's Not Just About 750,000 Hospital EmployeesHere's an excerpt from <a href="http://therevealer.org/archives/10392">my latest at <i>The Revealer</i></a> regarding the recent controversy over insurance coverage of contraception by Catholic employers:<div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 5px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 5px; "><p></p><blockquote><p>And yet <a href="http://usccb.org/issues-and-action/religious-liberty/conscience-protection/index.cfm" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 102); ">the Catholic Church knows that the issue of conscience clauses</a> is about much more than the 750,000 hospital employees who musn’t get their hands on free contraception. At stake is the autonomy of the millions of patients who are treated at Catholic institutions each year. How many? According to the USCCB, there are currently 629 Catholic hospitals serving 20% of all patients in the country (about 50 of those hospitals are sole-providers, meaning there’s no other option for miles). That’s more than 35 million admissions every year, a total that still doesn’t include patients treated in emergency rooms, elder homes, or covered by HMO networks.</p><p>These conscience clauses, initiated with the Church Amendment, passed in 1973 only months after <em>Roe v. Wade</em>, have overlapped and evolved to not only protect the individual conscience of health care providers but, with the passage of the Weldon Amendment in 2005, that of “health care entities.” Much as <em>Citizens United</em> designated corporations as people, so have these clauses granted institutions conscience rights that supersede the rights of employees and patients. Not only are services that don’t comply with the <a href="http://usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/health-care/upload/Ethical-Religious-Directives-Catholic-Health-Care-Services-fifth-edition-2009.pdf" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 102); ">Ethical and Religious Directives</a> (ERDs)–written and approved by the USCCB–denied at Catholic institutions, but patients aren’t informed of them as medical options, nor are they referred to other institutions where they might receive them. Informed consent and referrals are considered violation of Catholic teaching.</p><p>Of course, the level to which institutions and providers comply with the Ethical and Religious Directives varies greatly. What the church demands, as <a href="http://www.guttmacher.org/media/nr/2011/04/13/index.html" style="color: rgb(51, 102, 102); ">statistics regarding Catholic contraception usage</a> show, followers and employees have a long tradition of resisting. What often determines the compliance of facilities and employees with Catholic guidelines is the amount of interest the local bishop has in the affairs of institutions in his diocese. In the past decade, we’ve witnessed the appointment of increasingly conservative bishops and the pressure of presiding bishops to pay closer attention to hospitals, in part by the conservative turn of the church leadership and in part by the pressure on health care delivery from choice movements.</p></blockquote><p></p><p><a href="http://therevealer.org/archives/10392">Continue reading here.</a></p></span></div>Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-65070620565230651682012-01-29T08:20:00.000-08:002012-01-29T08:58:22.558-08:00The GOP Candidates and Terri Schiavo<div>In a recent debate in Florida, the GOP presidential candidates--all quite possessed with desire to secure the evangelical and Catholic vote--had a chance to take a swipe at end of life issues, via <a href="http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/medicine/terri-schiavo-case-a-topic-for-gop-presidential-candidates-at-debate/1212028">a question regarding the case of Terri Schiavo</a>. Florida is the state where Schiavo resided until her death in 2005 and where a district court judge (appointed by a Republican) told the Attorney General, the sitting president, and Rick Santorum to bugger off.</div><div><br /></div><div>While much of the media commentary after the debate simply recorded what the candidates said, few have debunked the meaning or intention of their statements.</div><div><br /></div><div>Rick Santorum told the audience:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; "><p style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 12px; ">"I called for a judicial hearing by an impartial judge at the federal level to review a case in which you had parents and a spouse on different sides of the issue," said Rick Santorum, a U.S. senator at the time. "And these were constituents of mine. The parents happen to live in Pennsylvania, and they came to me and made a very strong case that they would like to see some other pair of eyes, judicial eyes, look at it.</p><p style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 12px; ">"And I agreed to advocate for those constituents because I believe that we should give respect and dignity for all human life, irrespective of their condition," Santorum said.</p></span>Rick Santorum was very involved in the Schiavo case. Schiavo's parents did petition Santorum for support. They also initiated a media blitz that is still widely recalled today. The then-Pennsylvania senator <a href="http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/23/tampa-fla-debate-fact-check/">was strongly behind government intervention</a> into the case, despite his down-playing of that during the debate (most likely because the Republicans have ludicrously put the "keep government out of health care" on the Obama Administration's health care bill).</div><div><br /></div><div>A "pro-life" Catholic who received the ultra-conservative FAMiLY LEADER endorsement in Iowa, has been vocal about his support for Vatican-led efforts to end abortion even in cases of rape and incest and to end the legalization of aid in dying. In keeping with the Schindler family's belief that Schiavo was "disabled," Santorum would most likely push efforts to support these beliefs because, as he has stated, his version of God's law defines human rights. Santorum's version of religious freedom--and that of all the candidate with the questionable exception of Ron Paul--allows for the "pro-life" motivated regulation of medical procedures.</div><div><br /></div><div>Gingrich got a couple of issues mixed up. He compared the rights of civil patients to those of death row prisoners:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; "><p style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 12px; ">"Well, look," Newt Gingrich said. "I think that we go to extraordinary lengths, for example, for people who are on murderer's row. They have extraordinary rights of appeal. . . .</p><p style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 1.3em; margin-bottom: 12px; ">"It strikes me that having a bias in favor of life, and at least going to a federal hearing, which would be automatic if it was a criminal on death row, that it's not too much to say in some circumstances your rights as an American citizen ought to be respected," Gingrich said. "And there ought to be at least a judicial review of whether or not in that circumstance you should be allowed to die."</p></span><div>Gingrich mistakenly focused on the judicial proceeding in the Schiavo case. By the time Santorum and Republican lawmakers got involved, the judicial cases had been decided. What kept them going was the Schindler's and their allies unwillingness to comply. They kept appealing, then went to federal lawmakers and the media. </div><div><br /></div><div>Paul answered: </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19px; ">I find it so unfortunate, so unusual, too. That situation doesn't come up very often. It should teach us all a lesson to have living wills or a good conversation with a spouse. I would want my spouse to make the decision.</span></div><div><br /></div>Apparently Paul doesn't read <a href="http://medicalfutility.blogspot.com/">Thaddeus Pope's blog</a> where related cases are constantly featured. I also suspect that Paul doesn't know that there are an estimated 100,000 persistent vegetative state patients in the US at any given time. But his answer essentially repudiates what happened with Terri Schiavo.</div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps fully understanding that public opinion is in favor of patients' right to medical self-determination (polls in 2005 showed that the Schiavo fiasco was highly unfavorable to most Americans), <a href="http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/1/prweb9135890.htm">legal services companies</a> didn't lose the chance to offer their assistance with advanced directives and living wills in the wake of the GOP debate. Republican presidential candidates should pay attention to what end of life issues does to their polling numbers, particularly because their constituents tend to be old and white, the very same demographic willing to pay close attention to these issues. Choice at the end of life isn't as laden with issues of sex, guilt and shame that reproductive choice is.</div><div><br /></div><div><div>For more on the debate and candidate's answers about end of life issues, <a href="http://www.geripal.org/2012/01/gop-candidaters-on-advance-directives.html">go to GeriPal blog</a>. I've written directly or indirectly about the Terri Schiavo case <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/1747/the_resurrection_of_terri_schiavo/">here</a> and <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/157751/antichoice-end-life">here</a>.</div></div><div><br /></div>Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4424288185418554374.post-39067820146700562152012-01-29T04:38:00.000-08:002012-01-29T08:20:44.324-08:00Quick Links<div>This just in from a friend of mine who is watching the activities of the very powerful Ohio-based "pro-life" group (which recently endorsed Rick Santorum) FAMiLY LEADER, headed by Bob Vander Plaats:</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bg style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: table; border-collapse: separate; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color:#ffffff;"><tbody style="width: 764px; "><tr style="display: table-row; vertical-align: inherit; "><td align="center" style="display: table-cell; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; text-align: left; "><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" id="yiv653172861topMessageWrapper" bg width="600" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: table; border-collapse: separate; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: 600px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: auto; font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;color:#ffffff;"><tbody style="width: 600px; "><tr style="display: table-row; vertical-align: inherit; "><td style="display: table-cell; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; "><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="600" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: table; border-collapse: separate; "><tbody style="width: 600px; "><tr style="display: table-row; vertical-align: inherit; "><td style="display: table-cell; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" height="100%" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: table; border-collapse: separate; "><tbody style="width: 600px; "><tr style="display: table-row; vertical-align: inherit; "><td valign="top" style="display: table-cell; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; padding-bottom: 10px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 10px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><div style="border-bottom-color: rgb(194, 217, 231); border-top-color: rgb(194, 217, 231); border-right-color: rgb(194, 217, 231); border-left-color: rgb(194, 217, 231); "><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: table; border-collapse: separate; word-wrap: break-word; table-layout: fixed; "><tbody style="width: 580px; "><tr style="display: table-row; vertical-align: inherit; "><td style="display: table-cell; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:'Trebuchet MS';font-size:11px;"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><span style=" ;font-size:14px;"><span style=" ;font-family:georgia, serif;"><strong style="font-weight: bold; "><u>End of Life Decisions</u></strong></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><span style=" ;font-size:14px;"><span style=" ;font-family:georgia, serif;">House Study Bill 511 under the direction of Representative Joel Fry advanced out of the Human Resources committee on Wednesday. The legislation supports what are known as Physician Orders for Scope of Treatment (POST). Intended for terminally ill patients, these orders specify the desires of the individual patient regarding life support. Safeguards are established to protect against unwarranted termination of care. The FAMiLY LEADER cautioned against the tendency to “drift” in the direction of physician-assisted suicide. We trust and respect Representative Fry, and encourage our readers to pray for him to have wisdom as he prepares for House debate on the bill. As a cautionary signal, The FAMiLY LEADER is registered as “Undecided” on the bill.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: block; line-height: normal; "><span style=" ;font-size:14px;"><span style=" ;font-family:georgia, serif;"><br /></span></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></span><a href="http://www.bioedge.org/index.php/pointedremarks/view/9910">BioEdge reminds us</a> that the "dead donor rule," the medical standard that is used to determine when life ends for the purpose of organ removal, is in need of a revisit.</div><div><br /></div><div>The prison population across the nation is getting old and prison administrators are grappling with how to best handle health and aging concerns, <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/27/prison-dilemma-surging-numbers-older-inmates/">Fox reports</a>. A new report by <a href="http://www.hrw.org/reports/2012/01/26/old-behind-bars">Human Rights Watch report</a> on the aging prisoner population is here.</div><div><br /></div><div>Catholic Health Care West has changed it's name to Dignity Healthcare, to varied reactions. <a href="http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2012/01/25/catholic-health-care-west-sheds-its-inner-catholic/">Here's "pro-life" advocate Wesley J. Smith's</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Hawaiians <a href="https://compassionandchoices.org/hawaii">support aid in dying</a>, a new poll finds. While support is slightly higher there, the poll is consistent with attitudes across the rest of the nation.</div><div><br /></div><div>While I'm all for advancement of medicine--who isn't?--the recent push to <a href="http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke/2009/10/26/bobby-schindler-wants-to-kill-the-pvs-diagnosis/">"kill" or redefine the persistent vegetative state diagnosis</a> is fascinating and a little worrisome. Ever since the death of Terri Schiavo, activists have been working to undermine the diagnosis and qualify it as a severe disability. Studies like the recent one that shows "some" <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/sep/12/health.healthandwellbeing">PVS patients wake up when given a sleeping pill</a> or that <a href="http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2012/01/24/re-eeg-can-pick-brain-activity-people-vegetative-state-shows-study">EEGs can help find "locked in" patients</a> have caused huge amounts of attention but are strangely politically motivated and seemingly statistically unviable. Furthering understanding of PVS and brain dead patients (both, admittedly, are nebulous terms that offer no hard answers) is necessary. But the irresponsibility of some of the articles these recent studies is hard to stomach. Truth, they say, is truth. With issues as profound as the definition of life, truths look a lot more like wishes, on which beggars and activists can ride.</div><div><br /></div>Ann Neumannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13690469764844904030noreply@blogger.com0