Does palliative sedation ease suffering during end-of-life care?
While aid-in-dying, or “death with dignity,” is now legal in seven states and Washington, D.C., medically assisted suicide retains tough opposition. Palliative sedation, though, has been administered since the hospice care movement began in the 1960s and is legal everywhere.
Doctors want to give their cancer patients every chance. But are they pushing off hard talks too long?
Experts say doctors who counsel immunotherapy and hold onto hopes for remission are postponing conversations about palliative care and end-of-life wishes.
As elderly population swells, some doctors see benefits of palliative care in the ER
Emergency room physicians are struggling with how to deal with elderly patients with life-limiting conditions in an environment where most clinicians default to lifesaving techniques.
Watch 3:22
In facing death, this doctor sees a way to live well
Dr. BJ Miller does not work to heal patients, but to ensure quality of life amid advanced or serious illness. Sometimes people suggest his job is depressing, but Miller doesn’t see it that way. When people are dying it changes…
People facing life-threatening illnesses often access palliative care to ease their pain and help with difficult end-of-life choices. But for those living in remote, rural areas, getting that comforting care can be unwieldy. Special correspondent Joanne Elgart Jennings reports on…
Modern medicine has a fundamental failure in its approach toward aging and dying, says Dr. Atul Gawande: “We don't recognize that people have priorities besides just living longer.” Gawande, a surgeon and the author of a new book, "Being Mortal:…
Recent studies have indicated that barely a third of patients report having substantive conversations with their oncologists about end-of-life care, a statistic some physicians are looking to change. Health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser reports.
Additional Support Provided By:
