This case study illustrates the complex role that a physician’s conscience can play in end-of-life care. We examine a case in which a terminally ill Vermont patient requests aid-in-dying from her primary care physician under Vermont’s “Patient Choice and Control at End of Life” Act. The physician feels conflicted: she is opposed to prescribing death … Read more

The legal landscape for medical aid-in-dying (AID) in theUSA has shifted dramatically over the past 5 years. Vermont(2013), California (2015), Colorado (2016), the District ofColumbia (2016), and Hawaii (2018) have joined Oregon(1997), Washington (2008), and Montana (2009) in permittingphysicians to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to a termi-nally ill adult patient, provided that certain … Read more

Context Eight jurisdictions in the U.S. currently permit medical aid-in-dying (AID), yet little is known about the direct experience of caregivers in supporting a loved one through the process. Objectives To explore the experiences of lay caregivers involved with AID in the U.S., focusing on the day of death. Methods Semistructured in-depth interviews were conducted … Read more

This article draws on ethnographic research on the implementation of Vermont’s 2013 medical aid-in-dying (AID) law to explore a fundamental paradox: While public discourse characterizes AID as a mechanism for achieving an individually controlled autonomous death, the medico–legal framework that organizes it enlists social support and cultivates dependencies. Therefore, while patients pursuing AID may avoid … Read more

On April 5, 2018, Hawaii became the eighth jurisdiction in the United States to affirmatively authorize medical aid in dying (MAID). The Our Care, Our Choice Act (OCOCA), which takes effect on January 1, 2019, permits Hawaii physicians to write a lethal prescription for a mentally capacitated, terminally ill adult patient that the patient may … Read more

Much of the literature on aid-in-dying (AID) has drawn heavily on rights-based ethical and legal frameworks that emphasize patients’ rights of self-determination in end-of-life decision-making. Less attention has focused on how terminally ill people actually experience such putative rights once they are legally authorized. This analytic essay draws on findings from the Vermont Study on … Read more

Congratulation to  Mara Buchbinder on winning the UNC Hettleman prize! Please join us for Mara’s presentation of her Hettleman Lecture at 1:00pm on Tuesday, May 1st in the Tate Turner Kuralt auditorium, with reception following. We hope to see you there! Hettleman Lecture Flyer

On 19 July 2016, three medical organisations filed a federal lawsuit against representatives from several Vermont agencies over the Patient Choice and Control at End of Life Act. The law is similar to aid-in-dying (AID) laws in four other US states, but the lawsuit hinges on a distinctive aspect of Vermont’s law pertaining to patients’ … Read more

This Arts and Medicine essay reviews Extremis, a 2016 short documentary streaming on Netflix, which addresses the challenges of end-of-life communication and decision-making in the ICU by following the work and patients of a critical and palliative care physician at Highland Hospital in Oakland.

Abortion laws offer a point of entry for “the state” to intervene in intimate clinical matters. In this article, I explore the various uses of scripts and scripting in state-mandated abortion counseling following the implementation of North Carolina’s (2011) Woman’s “Right to Know” Act. The law mandates that women receive counseling with specific, state-prescribed information … Read more