Ethics in Health Care

Ethics in Health Care

Module Eight

Issues at the End of Life: Caring Ethically

Video Presenter: Peter Singer

Peter A. Singer is Director of the McLaughlin- Rotman Centre for Global Health and

Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His current research focuses on life

sciences and the developing world – how technologies make the transition from “lab to

village”. Singer's scholarly contributions have also included improvements in quality end of

life care, fair priority setting in healthcare organizations, teaching bioethics, pandemic

influenza planning, and global biosecurity. In 2007, Singer received the Michael Smith Prize

as Canada’s Health Researcher of the Year in Population Health and Health Services. He is

the Foreign Secretary of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Canada, and the US Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. He is

a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand

Challenges for Global Health Initiative, and has advised the UN Secretary General's Office,

the Government of Canada, and Pepsico Inc. on issues related to global health. He was

previously Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Bioethics at

the University of Toronto, Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics,

and Chairman of Toronto’s Branksome Hall School.

Overview:

This session continues to explore the application of theoretical perspectives to health care

practice. In this video, Peter Singer takes a very clinical approach in offering guidance about

what it means to provide quality care to the dying patient and what providing such care

might consist in.

Singer, a practicing physician, frames his presentation around ten important lessons he has

learned in providing quality end of life care. His insights cover everything from the

distinctions we make about providing aggressive as opposed to palliative care, the

importance of minimizing pain and suffering, and what it means to respect a patient’s wishes

at the end of life. Singer also considers the question of assisted death and its relevance to end

of life care, and raises questions about the capacities that are required of health professionals

for providing good end of life care in today’s world.

Readings:

Boards of Directors of the Canadian Healthcare Association, the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Nurses Association & the Catholic Health Association of Canada. (1999). Joint statement on preventing and resolving ethical conflicts involving health care providers and persons receiving care.

http://policybase.cma.ca/dbtw-wpd/PolicyPDF/PD99-03.pdf

Browne, A, Sullivan, B. (2006) Advanced directives in Canada. Cambridge Quarterly of healthcare ethics, 15, 256-260.Available through HSN Library Reading Room Reserve

Chidwick, P. & Sibbald, R.(2011). Physician perspectives on legal processes resolving end-of-life disputes. Healthcare Quarterly. 14(2), 69-74.

Accessible from the Health Sciences Library’s hard copy journal collection or online via the HRSRH A to Z list (Ebsco).

Veatch, R. (2000). Death and dying: The incompetent patient. In The basics of bioethics (pp. 101-117). New Jersey :Prentice Hall. Available though HSN Library Reading Room Reserve

Webster G. & Murphy (1999, March). Frank medical decisions a must. In Touch, 2(1).

http://www.phen.ab.ca/materials/intouch/vol2/intouch2-01.html