 |
 |
 |
|
END-OF-LIFE ISSUES
Chairperson
Thomas Duffy, Department of Internal Medicine/Hematology, Yale School of Medicine
Advisory Group
Phyllis Cohen, Associate Clinical Professor, Child Study Center, School of Medicine
Brooke Crockett, Program Coordinator, Bioethics Center
Paul Drager, MedEthics Consulting
Louis Gonzalez, Director of Continuing Medical Education, Connecticut Hospice
Scott Long, Assistant Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine and Staff Physician, Connecticut Hospice
Mark Mercurio, Clinical Professor/Pediatrics, School of Medicine
Geoffrey Miller, Professor, Pediatrics and Neurology, School of Medicine
Carol Pollard, Associate Director, Bioethics Center
Ashley Simmons, Program Coordinator, Bioethics Center
Howard Spiro, Professor Emeritus, Internal Medicine - Gastroenterology
The End-of-Life Issues Working Group at the Bioethics Center is devoted to exploring the parameters of various aspects of end-of-life care. The group has addressed, and continues to address, a wide range of situations in which further therapeutic medical care is inadvisable. It has explored topics such as "the high costs of dying", "care for the care-givers," "the dying process," and "what is good death?" Our group is one of the largest working groups at the Center, with 68 people comprised of Yale faculty, students, and community members; it makes for lively and provocative discussions.
The group meets on Tuesday nights, 5:30 for dinner (provided gratis) followed by a presentation and discussion, at the Institution for Social & Policy Studies, 77 Prospect Street. For further information, contact carol.pollard@yale.edu.
Our chairperson and members of our advisory group met over the summer to clarify direction for the academic year 2006 - 2007. Our first session focused on the Texas futility law, but the remaining sessions involved "spirituality at the end-of-life," with focus on how the world's major theological traditions inform end-of-life care. We looked at theological traditions through their views on dignity, suffering, faith, hope, forgiveness, guilt, and control. Readings were sent out via e-mail a week before each meeting.
We are grateful to Mr. Jerome Medalie (Yale Class of 1945’W), whose endowment to ISPS supported our program for this past academic year.
Our focus for the academic year "07-'08 will be "From Physician Assisted Suicide to Palliative Care."