Free Republic

Editor's Note: Bill Beckman, Executive Director, Illinois Right to Life Committee, updates RFFM.org's readers regarding the issue of living wills. During the last week, RFFM.org posted a series on end of life issues which were first seen on RFFM.org in 2006. Beckman's latest column is an insightful look into the confusing and sometimes deadly result of signing a living will. While the Terri Schiavo case was in the news back in 2004, another Florida case got much less publicity. Hanford Pinette had signed both a living will and a durable power of attorney for health care that designated his wife...

Editor's Note: This is the sixth in a series of columns first posted on the Illinois Right to Life Committee's (IRLC) website [http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org/] written by Bill Beckman, IRLC's executive director. The column discusses hospice care. Beckman relates nightmarish, firsthand recollections regarding patients and their hospice providers. This series warns readers about end of life issues and the need to monitor the care given to loved ones. The IRLC director also describes what readers can do to protect themselves from the looming culture of death which permeates the thinking of many medical facilities in our nation. Hospice has developed a good...

Editor's Note: This is the fourth in a series of columns first posted on the Illinois Right to Life Committee's (IRLC) website [http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org/] written by Bill Beckman, IRLC's executive director. The column discusses research on "brain dead" and "almost dead" patients. This series warns readers about end of life issues and the need to monitor the care given to loved ones. The IRLC director also describes what readers can do to protect themselves from the looming culture of death which permeates the thinking of many medical facilities in our nation. The following was written by Bill Beckman Life is precious,...

Editor's Note: This is the third in a series of seven columns first posted on the Illinois Right to Life Committee's (IRLC) website [http://www.illinoisrighttolife.org/] written by Bill Beckman, IRLC's executive director. The column discusses "futile care," a method of medical evaluation whereby a physician makes the decision on whether a patient is "worthy" of life-saving treatment. This column warns readers of the need to monitor the care given to loved ones. Beckman tells a heart-breaking, but true story which, for a time, ended happily, but could have concluded in disaster with the induced premature death of Andrea Clark. The IRLC...