Quotes and references acquired or produced through my academic studies.
The following is the transcript of the talk I gave, as part of a panel, at the Canadian Caregiving Summit (Ottawa, November 2023). I presented alongside two amazing women, Brenda Blais Nesbitt and Michelle Wan, and the panel was moderated by Terrence Ho. I re-recorded the talk and distributed it via my podcast, Matters of … Read more
Healthcare – especially public healthcare – is optimized for risk management. This will always be true despite talk of ‘personalized medicine’. It perpetuates its own truths and pre-approves acceptable choices for patients. Our experts and clinicians are trained to operate the system as it is, not to construct it on the fly according to each patient’s needs.
“It surprises me deeply that there is no oversight governing the involvement of patients and families in advisory roles in research, when the protection afforded them as research subjects is paramount.”
If healthcare really cared, we would be much further along by now. Why are we still talking about what ‘meaningful’ looks like? Why are patient experts still not paid for their expertise? Why have we not developed a body of research to quantify the value of patient engagement?
What is clinical bioethics? In my graduate bioethics program, we considered a range of healthcare topics in the context of our society’s ever-evolving moral and technological landscape – topics such as autonomy and consent, justice, equity, the allocation of resources, pandemics, emerging technologies, beginning and end-of-life issues, to name a few – all of which revealed a multitude … Read more
A patient’s reporting of symptoms or telling of their story to a physician, however compassionate that physician may be, is not the same thing as the patient’s full and valued participation in not only identifying and framing their own health issues, but also problem-solving and goal-setting.
My thesis is done! I’m not going to post it anywhere until I’ve graduated in a few weeks, but in the meantime, here is a summary (which I adapted from the abstract). Physician-Assisted Suicide: Slippery Slopes and Safeguards Although physician-assisted suicide (PAS) is legal in several jurisdictions around the world, debate about its merits and implementation is far from … Read more
Discussion of advance directives has popped up on my radar a lot lately. Could be my age (almost 45, which I optimistically consider the half-way mark) or my field of study (bioethics). Or, it could be that the need is finally recognized by the public, thanks in part to media coverage of end-of-life-gone-horribly-wrong stories. Sad … Read more
I’m saddened by the recent Supreme Court ruling wherein the judges unanimously voted to remove restrictions on physician aid-in-dying. Many of my peers and friends are in support of this ruling and would perhaps be surprised I feel differently. I could write a big essay about it but I know how it would go: To … Read more
I’ve just started Year 2, studying bioethics. I’m due to graduate in 2016 with a Master of Science in Bioethics (policy specialization), from “The Bioethics Program of Union Graduate College and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai”. (I was asked to use its proper name when referring to the program.) For anyone not from … Read more