Interview with Professor Erny Gillen – Moral Theologian and Bioethicist from Luxembourg
Issue 29, November 2009
Professor Erny Gillen teaches Moral Theology and Bioethics at Luxembourg Seminary. He is Episcopal Vicar for Social Affairs and President of Caritas in Luxembourg. He is also President of Caritas Europa and Vice President of Caritas Internationalis in Rome. During August he visited Wellington where I was able to interview him for this issue of The Nathaniel Report.
"When Did You Last See Your Father?"
Michael McCabe
Issue 29, November 2009
In the August 2009 edition of The Nathaniel Report, former Deputy Chief Families Commissioner Sharron Cole wrote about the role of the Families Commission and the changing nature of family demographics in New Zealand. That article provides a companion piece to the following article which was originally presented as part of the Hospice New Zealand Genesis Breakfast Lecture Series on 2 July 2009. Some 40 sites participated in this teleconference.
Making a Difference in Challenging Environments
Michael McCabe
Issue 30, April 2010
Keynote Address at "Together We Can..." National Conference of the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services 2010
Further Considerations in Relation to the Refusal of Nutrition and Hydration
Associate Professor Nicholas Tonti-Filippini PhD
Issue 30, April 2010
A number of highly publicised cases in Australia and New Zealand have, once again, highlighted the ethical and legal dilemmas surrounding the provision and refusal of nutrition and hydration at the end of life. Two recent cases that come most readily to mind are those of Christian Rossiter, a 49 year old Perth man who became a quadriplegic in March 2008, and Margaret Page, a 60 year old Wellington woman who suffered a cerebral haemorrhage 20 years ago.
Editorial: Assisted suicide - right to die or duty to die?
John Kleinsman
Issue 31, August 2010
The debate about euthanasia, or more accurately 'Physician Assisted Suicide' – let's not dress it up by using soft language like 'death with dignity' – has reared its head again. We are told that there should be a legal right for certain persons (specifically doctors) to be able to kill an individual when that is what the individual wants. This claim to the right to assisted suicide, which comes out of a deep seated fear of the dying process, will have far reaching effects on the elderly and the sick should it become legalised.
We need a society which cares, not kills
Erik Leipoldt
Issue 31, August 2010
Erik Leipoldt acquired quadriplegia in 1978 after a diving accident. He has just published a book on attitudes of Dutch and Australian people with quadriplegia towards euthanasia and asks whether we really need to legalise euthanasia.
The Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP) in New Zealand
Theresa Mackenzie
Issue 31, August 2010
Care of the dying is urgent care. We only get one opportunity to get it right.
The modern hospice movement was championed by Dame Cecily Saunders in 1967 with the opening of St Christopher's Hospice in London. The driving force of the hospice movement was the desire to transform the experience of dying patients. The philosophy that underpins hospice care is that death is a normal part of life and that all dying people deserve to be free from pain and treated with respect and compassion. It is this model of excellence in the care of the dying that a multidisciplinary pathway steering group from the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital and Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool (UK) strove to transfer to other care settings in the mid 1990's when they identified integrated care pathways as a potential tool to improve the care of dying patients. Care pathways are frameworks that help standardise and review quality of care and ensure that clinical care is based on the latest evidence and research.[1]
Bioethics in the News - Dealing with the Alzheimer's "Tsunami"
Alzheimer's disease is an irreversible and progressive brain disease that slowly but inexorably destroys memory, thinking skills, and eventually the ability to carry out the simplest tasks. The staggering growth in persons being diagnosed with Alzheimer's has led many to describe it as a "tsunami in waiting." According to recent statistics one in two Americans in their eighties have this disease, and one in ten over sixty-five. Alzheimer's death rates are up 47 percent since 2000. Alzheimer's is now the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. (See http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/jul_aug_contrarian). While there is no clear understanding of what starts the disease process, it is known that damage to the brain begins 10 to 20 years before any problems become evident.
Subcategories
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Euthanasia
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