Policies on reproduction have become an increasingly important tool for governments seeking to meet the so-called demographic 'challenge' created by the combination of low fertility and lengthening life expectancies. ...

In the UK and elsewhere suicide presents a major cause of death. In 2008 in the UK the topic of suicide rarely left the news. Controversy surrounding Daniel James and Debbie Purdy ensured that the problem of assisted suicide ...

Previous research on health and life insurers' financial investments has highlighted the tension between profit maximization and the public good. We ascertained health and life insurance firms' holdings in the fast food ...

OBJECTIVES: Communication about end-of-life decisions is crucial. Although patients with metastatic spinal cord compression (MSCC) have a median survival time of 3 to 6 months, few data are available concerning the presence ...

Culturally competent medical care for the dying patient by families and health care professionals is a challenging task especially when religious values, practices, and beliefs influence treatment decisions for patients ...

The progresses of medicine, by increasing longevity, as well as in geriatrics, by improving the elderly's quality of life led to an understanding of old age based on the therapeutic metaphor. This fact, imbued with positive ...

Organ transplantation significantly improves the health, quality of life and life-expectancy of people whose organs have failed. Most patients in the UK cannot enjoy the benefits of a transplant because of an extreme ...

Increasingly, children and adolescents with complex chronic conditions are living in the community. Federal legislation and regulations facilitate their participation in school. Some of these children and adolescents and ...

BACKGROUND: Recent discussions about health care reform have raised questions regarding the value of advance directives. METHODS: We used data from survey proxies in the Health and Retirement Study involving adults 60 years ...

The allocation of scarce health care resources such as flu treatment or organs for transplant presents stark problems of distributive justice. Persad, Wertheimer, and Emanuel have recently proposed a novel system for such ...