The Importance of Being Present to Your Community in End of Life Care

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An elderly person with multiple medical problems is often in the ICU. The machines that we can use to intervene upon their vital functions are keeping those vital functions running While perhaps, you know as often as the case Cognitively the patient is waning. It is not uncommon to have such patients kind of linger for weeks to months In the hospital Everyone knows we're just waiting for death No one thinks such individuals will ever ever leave We'll never probably leave the ICU though.

Curtis and guest Dr. Lydia Dugdale talk about life and death issues (literally) that affect every single human being. How do we face death? How can we die well? What are the cultural and medical forces that are leading so many to die poorly? Why are the practices of physican-assisted suicide and euthanasia gaining momentum and acceptance - and why has the Christian pro-life movement missed the deep connection between those practices and abortion?

Dr. Lydia Dugdale is a professor at the Columbia University Medical School and a national leader in medical ethics. She is the author of The Lost Art of Dying.

SHOW NOTES:

Free PDF download of The Lost Art of Dying study guide.

A pilot project in NYC that provides end-of-life resources for church leaders.

An excellent compilation of Christian writing on euthanasia and related end of life issues.

Coverage about Canada’s euthanasia industry in Plough Magazine and the New Atlantis.