From the Euthanasia Society to Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment: End-of-Life Care in the United States : The Cancer Journal

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From the Euthanasia Society to Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment

End-of-Life Care in the United States

Miljković, Miloš D. MD, MSc*; Jones, Barbara L. PhD, MSW†; Miller, Kenneth MD*

Author Information

From the *Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD; and †UT Austin School of Social Work, Austin, TX.

The authors have disclosed that they have no significant relationships with, or financial interest in, any commercial companies pertaining to this article.

Reprints: Miloš D. Miljković, MD, MSc, Sinai Hospital of Baltimore, 2401 W Belvedere Ave, Baltimore, MD 21215. E-mail: [email protected].

The Cancer Journal 19(5):p 438-443, September/October 2013. | DOI: 10.1097/01.PPO.0000434393.56929.c8

Abstract

Advances in medical care and increasing prevalence of noncommunicable illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and cancer had raised concerns about respecting the patients’ dying wishes as early as 1938, when the Euthanasia Society of America was formed. Many high-profile cases and landmark court decisions later, there are now several ways in which different states regulate the patients’ end-of-life wishes. How these laws evolved, how seminal cases and medical and ethical advances helped shape the current state of end-of-life legislation, and how patients—especially those with cancer—began adopting various forms of advance directives will be the topic of this article.

© 2013 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins

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