At the End of Life: The Physician's Role, Responsibility, and Agency

Join me in Seattle for "At the End of Life: The Physician's Role, Responsibility, and Agency." This national two-day conference is Sept. 13 and 14, 2019, at the University of Washington in Seattle. We will explore the complex issues—professional, moral, and legal—facing physicians caring for dying patients. 

Physicians have the privilege and duty to care for patients at the end of life. Sometimes a physician’s actions factor into a patient’s death; such as discontinuing life-support (including ventilators, cardiac devices, and dialysis), clinically supporting patients who voluntarily stop eating and drinking (VSED), providing palliative sedation, and in states where it is legal, prescribing a lethal dose of medication to a dying patient. These cases have clinical, legal, ethical, sociocultural, and psychological dimensions that are often challenging for physicians to navigate.

At this conference, we'll set the stage for ongoing discussion of these practices and the issues physicians caring for dying patients often face, as both medical technology and patients’ requests for planned death evolve.

Speakers other than me include (among many others):

• J. Randall Curtis
• Linda Ganzini
• Timothy Quill
• Haider Warraich