Barbara Coombs Lee

Why is it so difficult for doctors to confront the truth when a patient is dying and almost impossible for most to talk about it openly with the patient and loved ones?

Last week I shared a hunch. A journalist asked me the question, "Why do doctors find these conversations...

Anti-choice forces are taking aim at end-of-life care. They're after people at the end of a long decline who exercise their right to stop life-prolonging technology or treatment. Their tactic is to tie the hands of doctors attending those patients, when palliative treatment might ease the patient's chosen death....

How do we get doctors to honor our wishes at the end of life? Most recommend preparing an advance directive, and I'm no exception. These documents are not infallible, but they are the best things we've got going for us when we can't speak for ourselves.

However, one...

A study published this month paints a troubling picture. Imagine palliative care doctors, working to deliver the best possible comfort care to their patients. Yet even as they meet the recognized best practices of their profession, their colleagues are judging their covert intentions and moral fiber.

Over half of the...

Eighteen years ago, Dr. Peter Goodwin led the fight to grant Oregonians the right to end-of-life choice. I was honored to work alongside Peter as a co-campaigner and call him a friend. Both as a physician and an advocate, he promoted honesty in facing death. This month he confronted his...

After years of gains and setbacks, the national movement for same-sex marriage is enjoying a period of remarkable success. Massachusetts and Connecticut became first adopters in 2004 and 2005 and that came after twenty years of advocacy. Turmoil followed, especially in California. But in 2009 three states (Iowa, Vermont,...

March 8th was the 101st annual International Women's Day. In some countries this Day holds the same stature as Mother's Day and celebrates women's economic, political and social achievements. More or less concurrently, proposals landed in Congress and in states around the nation to excuse insurance plans and religious...

Over and over we see the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops confuse the right to exercise their religion with a right to impose their religion on Americans who don't share it. This is not a subtle difference.

And, as Bill Moyers points out in the context of their...

New Messaging From Politicians

Sometimes progress toward human dignity seems agonizingly slow, especially affirming the role of choice at the end of life. So it's heartening when evidence of seismic change shows up. Last week's presidential debate lifted our hearts for this reason.

Contenders for the Republican nomination were...

In November, Dr. Ken Murray published a blog on Zocalo Public Square called "How Doctors Die." It's been reverberating through the Web ever since, prompting a continuous stream of comments and inspiring others to offer their own essays and input.

What struck a chord was the assertion that doctors...

The year 2011 closed with good news out of Kentucky. On Friday Governor Steve Beshear refused to approve a Louisville hospital merger that threatened patient choice. Compassion & Choices, MergerWatch, the National Women's Law Center and other national advocacy organizations joined local activists to raise constitutional and public...

Our family will always remember this holiday season as the time Sugar died. Sugar was a mixed breed, mostly lab/border-collie type. She exhibited the best character traits of every gene she carried and seemed to bear none of any breed's drawbacks. She was a real credit to her species.

A...

Leaders in the care of patients who face serious and life-limiting illness have designated November as National Hospice and Palliative Care Month, prompting more stories about both options. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gives a very good overview of palliative care and hospice in this Q&A with Dr. Diane Meier....

The doctrine of double effect enables medical providers of every faith, in every state, to treat end-of-life pain aggressively and to participate in treatment decisions that advance the time of death. Now, data from Oregon demonstrates that the doctrine applies to prescribing medication for aid in dying, too.

For years...

I have never recommended a film on the end of life before. But people deserve to see Consider the Conversation because it deepens our passion for life and enriches our lives. Michael Bernhagen and Terry Kaldhusdal put their hearts into this film, and it shows. Michael came to...

A mile high and 10 miles northeast of Lincoln, Mont., melting snow and mountain springs form the headwaters of the Blackfoot, made famous in the novella and film "A River Runs Through It." Stand at the source, running icy and fast, and try to picture Hawaii. This water flows...

On New Year's Eve 2009, Montana's Supreme Court handed down the ruling in "Baxter v. Montana" and authorized the practice of aid in dying for mentally-competent, terminally-ill adults. The Court declared that such a patient may request medication that could be ingested to ensure a peaceful death. They ruled...

Seventeen years ago, the people of Oregon took a bold step in end-of-life care and comfort. By citizen initiative, they adopted eligibility criteria and practice guidelines for terminally ill, mentally competent adults to obtain medication that would ensure peaceful dying.

I was one of the drafters of that...

New York has a new law, called the Palliative Care information Act (PCIA). It's simple, and short, and outlines a specific standard for doctors who care for patients at the end of life.

The PCIA says when a disease has advanced to the terminal phase and a patient is...

As I wrote last week, Compassion & Choices welcomes the affirmation by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) that religious objection is the foundation of their opposition to aid in dying. The bishops' battle against the medical practice of aid in dying has...