See how a Course Works: Intro to Online Learning
Description
Palliative care education from Gatlin International provides students with a broad understanding of this critical area of medical care. The mystery of death is one of the great mysteries of life. As we seek to understand more about the dying process, we learn that this experience is most often filled with pain, suffering and difficult choices. Most of all, we come to recognize the profound meaning of end-of-life care. It is the meaning of this care and the way that it is practiced, however, that has raised moral concerns. In 1997, Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the United States. Based on the Oregon experience, what can we learn about terminally ill patient’s rights regarding their care and ultimately their death? And what can we learn from opponents who believe that assisted suicide is really a plea for better end-of-life care?
As the result of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, caregivers began to learn and truly understand the meaning of quality end-of-life care. Palliative care means supporting family caregivers, dealing with patient’s fears, managing their pain, and honoring patient’s goals as they journey to death. While this quality of care may find common value among caregivers, the act has heightened awareness as to what form of care is appropriate in end-of-life.
In this award winning video you will hear from leading experts on both sides of the issue passionately arguing the case for and against physician assisted suicide.
Palliative care education from Gatlin International makes it easier and more affordable than ever to get the training you need to succeed.
Outline
Module 1: Ethical Issues on Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide
To understand some of the main differences and similarities between passive euthanasia, active euthanasia, and physician-assisted suicide.
To understand why the distinction between not starting treatment and stopping treatment fails to demonstrate a morally relevant difference between active and passive euthanasia.
To understand why the distinction between natural and unnatural causes of death fails to demonstrate a morally relevant difference between active and passive euthanasia.
To identify the role that health care providers’ intentions play in the ethical analysis of euthanasia and end-of-life care.
To identify some of the implications of the obligation to respect patient autonomy for end-of-life care.
Module 2: Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act: Early Results and Ethical Issues
To understand some of the key provisions of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act.
To identify major factors influencing patient decisions regarding assisted suicide in Oregon according to physicians and family members.
To identify concerns raised by the experience of physician-assisted suicide in Oregon.
Module 3: The U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision on Physician Assisted Suicide
To identify some of the changes in medicine and society the Supreme Court cited as driving the focus on palliative care, physician-assisted suicide, and other end-of-life issues.
To identify some of the interests of states the Supreme Court said could be violated if a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide were recognized.
To understand some of the reasons the Supreme Court gave for upholding a patient’s right to refuse medical treatment while denying a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide.
To understand some differences between terminal sedation and physician-assisted suicide.
To understand how the Supreme Court’s implication that patients have a constitutional right to adequate palliative care may affect current state laws, policies, and practices.
Module 4: Legal Challenges to Physician Assisted Suicide
To understand some of the reasons Attorney General Ashcroft offered for ruling that physicians who prescribe medications to assist terminally ill patients to hasten their deaths would be subject to punitive action by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
To identify some of the differences between Attorney General Ashcroft’s understanding of pain management and the clinical reality described by many clinicians.
To understand some of the reasons some clinicians hold that it can be difficult to determine whether a physician prescribed a controlled substance to ease pain versus to hasten death.
To understand some of the concerns regarding the impact of Attorney General Ashcroft’s ruling on palliative care and hospice care in general.
To identify some of the implications of Attorney General Ashcroft’s ruling for the practice and regulation of medicine
Module 5: Experience with Physician-Assisted Suicide: Ethical Issues
To identify some of the reasons for requesting assistance in dying by those patients who actually died by physician-assisted suicide in Oregon.
To describe common steps that physicians in Oregon take when a patient requests physician-assisted suicide.
To describe some of the difficulties that physicians in Oregon have with the practice of physician-assisted suicide.
To identify some of the differences in the circumstances surrounding requests for lethal injection versus requests for physician-assisted suicide.
Module 6: Palliative and Hospice Care at the End of Life: Ethical Issues
To understand the distinction between palliative and hospice care.
To understand some of the main goals of palliative care.
To differentiate between neuro-cognitive suffering and agent-narrative suffering.
To identify some of the characteristics of suitable candidates for palliative care.
To identify some of the common approaches used in to palliative and/or hospice care to meet the needs of patients
Module 7: Physician Assisted Suicide: the Ethics of Respecting Patient Autonomy
To understand some of the psychological factors that typically contribute to requests for a hastened death by patients with amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
To identify some steps that can be taken to better understand and address the preferences for a hastened death of patients with ALS.
To understand some of the common experiences of dying patients and their families in the last days of terminal illness.
To understand some ways patients can help ensure their autonomy is respected when making decisions to accept or refuse life-sustaining treatment.
To identify some ways physicians can enhance respect for patient autonomy when consulting with patients regarding decisions to refuse treatment.
Module 8: Physician Assisted Suicide: the Ethics of Limiting Patient Autonomy
To understand why proponents of physician assisted suicide emphasize the argument from autonomy that focuses upon the patient’s decision.
To identify concerns about the impact of physician-assisted suicide upon the delivery of health care in society.
To identify concerns about the impact of physician-assisted suicide upon the character of society.
To identify concerns about the impact of physician-assisted suicide upon the understanding of medicine.
To identify differences between the secular and Christian understandings of physician-assisted suicide.
Module 9: The Relief of Pain/Suffering and Alternatives to Physician-Assisted Suicide
To identify some of the reasons why physician-assisted suicide is requested.
To identify some of the responsibilities of physicians toward patients who request their physician to hasten or bring about death.
To understand why some ethicists hold that the voluntarily stopping of eating and drinking may be preferable to physician-assisted suicide.
To identify some of the difficulties associated with the voluntary stopping of eating and drinking.
To identify why society has an interest in promoting alternatives to physician-assisted suicide.
Module 10: The Relief of Pain/Suffering and the Ethics of Terminal Sedation
To understand why some ethicists hold that terminal sedation is morally equivalent to euthanasia.
To understand why some ethicists hold that terminal sedation and euthanasia are morally different.
To understand some of the conditions proposed by ethicists for terminal sedation to be morally acceptable.
To understand some of the important differences between sedation of the imminently dying and sedation towards death.
To understand some guidelines clinicians should follow in preparing to administer terminal sedation.
Module 11: The Principle of Double Effect in End-of-Life Care: Killing or Letting Die
To understand when an action with a good effect and a bad effect can be morally permissible according to the rule of double effect.
To identify some examples of clinical practices that would be permissible according to the rule of double effect.
To identify other examples of clinical practices that would be considered permissible according to the rule of double effect.
To understand some of the objections to the use of double effect when evaluating end-of-life issues.
To understand some of the reasons for the continued use the double effect rule in end-of-life care decisions.
Module 12: Medical Codes & Professionalism: End-of-Life Care & Assisted Suicide
To understand some of the main considerations involved in making decisions regarding life-sustaining treatment for seriously ill newborns.
To understand some of the main considerations involved in decisions regarding efforts to resuscitate patients.
To understand the position of the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) on physician-assisted suicide and voluntary active euthanasia.
To understand some of the essential components of palliative care according to the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
To understand some important considerations in providing palliative care to patients with neurological diseases
Additional Info
- Languages
- English
- Course Length
- 12.00 hours
- Duration of Access
- Instructor
Gerard Magill, Ph.D
Professor Magill is holder of the Vernon F. Gallagher Chair for the Integration of Science, Theology, Philosophy and Law. He is a tenured Professor in Duquesne University 's Center for Healthcare Ethics in the McAnulty Graduate School of Liberal Arts. He arrived at Duquesne University in 2007.
Previously, Professor Magill was a tenured Professor in the Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University where he served as inaugural Department Chair (1996-2005) and as Executive Director (1999-2005); also, he held secondary appointments as Professor in the School of Medicine in its Department of Internal Medicine and Professor in the School of Public Health in its Department of Health Administration. During this period he served on the University's Hospital Ethics Committee and was a member of the University's Institutional Review Board for research protocols. From 1976-1996, sequentially he held teaching posts in religious ethics in Drygrange College , Scotland , in Loyola University 's theology department in Chicago , in Saint Louis University 's theology department. He holds a Ph.D. in theology from Edinburgh University , Scotland , and an S.T.L. in moral theology, an S.T.B. in systematic theology and a Ph.B. in philosophy from the Gregorian University in Rome , Italy .
Professor Magill has published five edited or co-edited interdisciplinary books: Genetics and Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Study (2004); Abortion and Public Policy: An Interdisciplinary Investigation (1996); Values and Public Life: An Interdisciplinary Study (1995); Personality and Belief: Interdisciplinary Essays (1994); Discourse and Context: An Interdisciplinary Study (1993). Also, he has published over sixty academic essays in scholarly or professional journals. He was the lead author of Ethics Consultation Liability (2004), a national report commissioned by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities. From 1996-2006 he was editor of the bioethics journal, Health Care Ethics USA . He has given approximately two hundred scholarly or professional presentations at conferences etc. And he is an active member of ten professional associations.
Currently, Professor Magill is completing a book on applying the imagination to the development of health care ethics and his research agenda focuses on human genomics and stem cell research.
Ethical Expert Opinions
Timothy E. Quill, M.D., Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Medical Humanities at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry
Linda Ganzini, M.D., M.P. H., OHSU Department of Psychiatry
Ann Jackson, M.B.A., Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Oregon Hospice Association
Joanne Lynn, M.D., Director of the Center to Improve Care of the Dying, George Washington Medical School Washington, D.C.
Sylvia McSkimming, PhD, RN, Former Executive Director: Supportive Care of the Dying: A Coalition for Compassionate Care
Peter A. Rasmussen, M.D. Oncologist
Mark Siegler, M.D., FACP., Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics
Daniel P. Sulmasy, O.F.M., M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Bioethics Institute of New York Medical College, Valhalla, NY
Scott Blaine Swenson ,ODWD Executive Director
- Prerequisites/Audience
There are no prerequisites for this course.
- Requirements/Materials Included
Minimum requirements: Windows XP Service Pack 2/Internet Explorer 6.0 or Firefox 2.0. Recommended: Windows Vista/Internet Explorer 7.0 or Firefox 2.0. This course can be taken from either a Mac or a PC. There are no specific computer requirements other than a high speed Internet connection (DSL or Cable) and email capabilities. Students will need the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, Acrobat Reader or Windows Media Player which are available via free downloads.
