Doctor no parents want to see is one they need when their children are dying

The doctor bends slightly at the waist, or he slouches, or he kneels, or he finds a chair to sink into, anything to get low. He wants to be physically beneath the devastated people he meets several ...
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A health care policy that puts the ending first

TORRANCE, Calif.—Rod Hochman vividly remembers watching his father die the wrong way, laid out by a stroke at age 78, hooked up to a ventilator and an intravenous drip in an ICU, his last hours ...
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Providence St. Joseph rolls out new end-of-life initiatives

Dr. Ira Byock would make weeklong trips to his hometown in New Jersey to drive his dad to radiation therapy as he battled pancreatic cancer. The daily 2½-hour ritual would stir up memories as ...
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Physician-assisted suicide won't atone for medicine's 'original sin'

Centuries from now, one of the things our era will be known for is the plague of dying badly. I’m proud of being a physician and a lifelong political progressive. I ardently believe in human ...
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Taking psychedelics seriously

Background: Psychiatric research in the 1950s and 1960s showed potential for psychedelic medications to markedly alleviate depression and suffering associated with terminal illness. More recent ...
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