Is it futile to defend the Texas ‘futile care’ law?
In October 2019, an ethics committee at Cook Children's Medical Center, in Fort Worth, Texas, voted unanimously to end treatment for a baby named Tinslee...
Disability rights groups protest death of man in Texas hospital
What about the equal dignity of the disabled? Michael Hickson with his five children / photo from Melissa Hickson Late last month we reported the...
Bioethics and natural law: an interview with John Keown
An exclusive interview with John Keown, a senior research scholar at Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics. Bioethics discourse is often divided into two broad...
Another controversy over futile care in Texas
A hospital committee authorises discontinuation of life-sustaining treatment. Chris Dunn in hospital bed before Christmas Medical ethicists have clashed over the death of Chris...
Doctors must withdraw life support from twins – UK judge
A UK High Court has ruled that two severely intellectually disabled Iraqi twins must have their life support switched off, despite objection from their parents....
Spanish girl at centre of futile care controversy dies
Hospital faces off against parents in ethical conflictAndrea's parents, Antonio Lago and Estela Ordoñez A right-to-die case which has riveted Spain ended on October 9...
Parents who await miraculous cures could be “torturing” their dying children, say UK doctors
What should doctors do if deeply religious parents want to keep a child alive at any cost, even if the child is suffering and has...
“Baby Joseph” returns to Canada, breathing on his own
Joseph Maraachli, the boy whose family refused to accept a Canadian hospital’s recommendation to remove his breathing tube and allow him to die, is now...
Canadian baby at heart of ethics debate goes to US for surgery
Canadian doctors wouldn’t treat him A tear-jerking futile care case has been fought in Canada with the help of American firepower. One-year-old Joseph Maraachli, the child...
Parents fight to keep brain-damaged Canadian baby on ventilator
Doctors seek to remove Isaiah May A Canadian baby on a life-supporting ventilator has become the centre of the latest controversy over futile medical treatment....
Courts overrule parents in fight to keep baby alive
Infant had severe brain damage and respiratory failureA fight in the courts over whether to keep treating a seriously ill baby boy has ended with...
Which is futile, a patient’s care or his life?
Case of disabled girl raises questions about Texas law When disaster strikes, a Texas hospital may not be the best place for a seriously ill...