Category: Procedures & Services

Administration looking into bringing doctor to Guam to provide abortions

Pacific Daily News

Jasmine Stole Weiss

The administration is looking into recruiting a doctor to provide abortions here, said Jayne Flores, director of the Bureau of Women’s Affairs. 

Flores said she will be having a closed-door meeting with Department of Public Health and Social Services officials this week to address the issue.

They’ll meet “to talk about a plan to recruit a doctor,” Flores said. 

The meeting is in response to the fact that no abortions have been reported since Dr. William Freeman retired last year in May. For years, Guam had two abortion providers in Freeman and Dr. Edmund Griley. Both retired. 

No other doctor on island advertises that service. . . [Full text]

Duterte blames Philippine Church for rapid population rise

Catholic opposition to family planning is main reason for high fertility rate, he says

UCA News

Joe Torres

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has blamed the Catholic Church for the rapid growth in the country’s population in recent years.

The Philippines is the 13th most populous country in the world, between Mexico and Ethiopia, with a growth rate of 1.72 percent between 2010 and 2015.

It is the second most populous country in Southeast Asia behind Indonesia and has the highest population-growth rate in the region. . . [Full text]

AMA Reaffirms Stance Against Physician-Aided Death

Medscape

Marcia Frellick

CHICAGO — Delegates voted overwhelmingly to affirm the current policy opposing physician-assisted dying here at the American Medical Association (AMA) 2019 Annual Meeting.

After impassioned testimony from both sides at last year’s meeting, the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs was asked to further examine the issue.

“The AMA House of Delegates concluded that established guidance in the Code of Medical Ethics supports shared decisions that respect the deeply held beliefs of physicians and their patients with respect to assisted suicide,” said AMA President Barbara McAneny, MD. . . [Full text]

American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, American Academy of Neurology

Canadian Blood Services releases first set of national guidelines for organ donation after medical assistance in dying

The Globe and Mail

Kelly Grant

In the last moments before Bob Blackwood died, the doctor paused and, in front of a hushed crowd of operating-room staff, thanked Mr. Blackwood for the gift he was about to give.

It was the summer of 2017 and Mr. Blackwood, a 63-year-old former lawyer with a rare and excruciating neurological disorder, was about to become the first patient in Quebec’s eastern townships to donate his organs after receiving a medically assisted death.

“[The doctor] said he hoped that this was something they’ll be able to do more in the future to help save lives,” said Heather Ross, Mr. Blackwood’s widow. “It was just lovely how he put it.” . . . [Full text]

Some Quebec doctors still resisting assisted dying, commission chair says

Montreal Gazette

Aaron Derfel

One out of two doctors who have turned down requests for medical assistance in dying by terminally-ill patients have probably done so without justification under the Quebec law, says the head of the province’s commission on end-of-life care.

“It’s 50-50,” Dr. Michel Bureau told the Montreal Gazette in an interview. “Are there some doctors who are too strict in the application of the criteria? We have observed this (attitude) in several cases.”

Despite the progress made in implementing the so-called dying with dignity law, some physicians continue to resist carrying out assisted dying, although in fewer numbers than when the legislation came into effect on Dec. 10, 2015, Bureau added. . . . [Full text]