Here is a slide show I had to make during my pain and palliative rotation, which ended up being an updated rehash of a review article I wrote for Cancer Journal on the history of end-of-life care. The article itself is behind a paywall, but you can find the PDF on ResearchGate.
When thinking about end-of-life care, and care for the sick patient in general, what most physicians worry about is:
- how not to kill the patient
- how to actually help the patient
- how not to get into trouble while doing the first two
As you will see in the slides, all laws currently in place are there to help you with that last thing. Death panels notwithstanding, there are no laws for the first two.
As with the first presentation I posted, the slides are embeded below. You can also see a full-screen version here.