Joseph J Fins

Nov 25, 2024 | issues.org | Joseph J Fins |Jay Lloyd |Vol. XLI

What researching a biography of the celebrated mid-century physician-humanist reveals about technological capability and human frailty. Back in 1982, as I was preparing to enter Cornell University’s medical school, I was thrilled to learn that the physician- humanist and writer Lewis Thomas (1913–1993) would give us a lecture during our first year. I had read The Lives of a Cell during high school and remembered staring at his photo on the book’s dustcover.

Sep 11, 2024 | jamanetwork.com | Thaddeus Mason Pope |Harvey Chochinov |Joseph J Fins

Delaware may soon become the 12th US jurisdiction to authorize medical aid in dying. The Ron Silverio/Heather Block End-of-Life Options Law1 becomes a statute as soon as the governor acts and takes effect once the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services promulgates regulations to implement the statute.

Sep 11, 2024 | jamanetwork.com | Harvey Chochinov |Joseph J Fins |REACH PC Investigators

Whatever one’s view on medical assistance in dying (MAID), an underlying question is whether it should be considered part of palliative care. The Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association takes the stance that MAID “definitionally fall(s) outside of the scope of palliative care.” 1 This is a historical perspective dating to Hippocratic injunctions against a fatal draught.

Sep 28, 2023 | thehill.com | John Rogan |Joseph J Fins

It is becoming a familiar pattern: a member of Congress experiences a health scare followed by demands for his or her resignation — which the lawmaker typically rejects. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) batted away pressure to step down recently after he froze at a press conference for the second time this year.

Aug 29, 2023 | statnews.com | Joseph J Fins

Advance directives were born in the Senate. Now they can help preserve the dignity of its aging members. In Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, the parents of Nancy Cruzan, a young woman who had been left in a permanent vegetative state after a car accident, wanted the right to remove her life support. In 1990, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of her parents, affirming the constitutional right to refuse life-sustaining treatment.