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Regulatory safeguards are necessary before assisted suicide and euthanasia are legalized. Guidelines are necessary because treatment that causes death is not part of standard medical practice and vulnerable patients need to be protected from abuse. Policies regulating assisted suicide and euthanasia should promote palliative care as standard treatment. Physician-assisted death should be permitted only when repeatedly requested by a competent patient with a terminal or incurable illness. Additional goals of regulation should include the provision for an independent oversight committee and a means for ensuring public accountability.

Same-sex partnerships encounter tremendous challenges in the context of healthcare, including empowerment to act on behalf of loved ones. We share challenges faced by two women who confronted this issue head-on when their same-sex partners were critically, and, in one case, fatally, injured. In both cases, hospitals initially refused to recognize these women as next of kin; one woman endured years of legal battles in her struggle to win the right to care for her partner. The other testified about her heartrending experience before the Washington State Judiciary Committee, helping to inspire legislation regarding rights for visitation and end-of-life decisions on behalf of same-sex partners. We seek to remind health care providers of the limitations of current laws and to inspire them to support change.

The Justice Department filed a case against the risk of empowering agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), whose traditional role is to prevent drug abuse and diversion, in order to evaluate the end-of-life practices of physicians whose patients die while receiving prescribed opioids or barbiturates. A finding in favor of the Justice Department would have a chilling effect on physicians' willingness to treat patients' terminal symptoms.

An overview regarding decisions taken by a number of patients at the end of life and the consequences that are associated as a result of such decisions is presented. However, the law can play a very important role in solving disputes in such cases by making it difficult for any one party to impose a decision when family members or others concerned disagree with it.

Byline: Stanley. Macaden, Naveen. Salins, Maryann. Muckaden, Priyadarshini. Kulkarni, Anjum. Joad, Vivek. Nirabhawane, Srinagesh. Simha Purpose: To develop an End of Life Care (EOLC) Policy for patients who are dying [...]