Aid in Dying Ethics Consultation Service
To submit an ethics consultation request, please use this form:
The mission of the Ethics Consultation Service is to provide support for clinicians involved in the practice of medical aid in dying. This support is primarily directed at addressing clinical ethics questions brought up by clinicians involved with patients considering medical aid in dying, as well as aid-in-dying issues that arise among hospice and palliative care agencies, healthcare organizations, grief and bereavement services, and requests from other ethics committees seeking aid from an ethics group with aid-in-dying expertise.
See below the consultations for a list of members of the Consultation Service.
Case #8: What is the Appropriate Response when a Colleague
is Not following an Aid-in-Dying Law?
Case #7: Complex Social Situations as Confounders to Prescribing Aid-in-Dying Medications.
Case #6: Lost Hospice Eligibility with Aid-in-Dying Medications Held by Patient
Case #5: A patient pursues Voluntary Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED) to be able to meet eligibility for aid in dying
Case #4: Patient Discharge from Hospice Services for Pursuing Medical Aid in Dying
Case #3: Conflict Between Consulting Physicians Regarding Patient Prognosis
Case #2: Navigating Conflict Between Professional Nursing Commitments to Patients and Institutional “Leave the Room” Policies
Case #1: A Patient with Anorexia Nervosa Requests Aid in Dying.
Members of the Aid in Dying Ethics Consultation Service
Co-Chair: Jean Abbott, MD, MH. Jean Abbott, MD, MH, HEC-C; Retired Faculty, Center for Bioethics and Humanities & Palliative Care, CU Anschutz Medical Campus; current Ethics Committee member and consultant, Boulder Community Health & TRU Community Care & Hospice; Retired Ethics Consultation Lead, University of Colorado Hospital; Professor Emerita, Emergency Medicine.
Co-Chair: Jeanne Kerwin, DMH, HEC-C. Dr. Kerwin is a leader and speaker for clinical ethics and medical humanities throughout New Jersey and nationally. She worked in acute care hospitals doing ethics consultations for over 30 years, and has served on multiple State committees addressing end-of-life care. She is a national consultant/educator and Co-Chair for the Ethics Consultation Service for the American Clinicians Academy on Medical Aid in Dying. Dr. Kerwin holds Masters and Doctorate degrees in Medical Humanities from Drew University, a Certificate in Bioethics from Columbia University, and is a Scholar in the Palliative Care Education and Practice program at Harvard Medical School.
Members:
Margaret Pabst Battin, Distinguished Professor, Philosophy, and Adjunct Professor Internal Medicine, Center for Health Ethics, Arts and Humanities, University of Utah. Ethics Committee, American Clinicians Academy for Medical Aid in Dying, Advisory Board, The Completed Life Initiative. Author of numerous works on end-of-life issues, including The Least Worst Death and Ethical Issues in Suicide: Historical Sources, the latter a comprehensive historical sourcebook freely available online of thinking about the ethics of suicide in virtually all historical periods and global cultures, https://ethicsofsuicide.lib.utah.edu.
Cindy Bruzzese, MPA, MSB, HEC-C. Executive Director and Clinical Ethicist, Vermont Ethics Network (VEN); Clinical Ethicist University of Vermont Medical Center; Chair of the Ethics Committee for the State of Vermont Department of Disabilities, Aging and Independent Living (DAIL), Co-Chair of the Central Vermont Medical Center Ethics Committee and Director of the Statewide Task Force on Palliative Care. 2020 recipient of the Madison-Deane Award for Excellence in End-of-Life Care.
Lynette Cederquist, MD. Clinical Professor of Medicine, Director of Clinical Ethics Program, Muriel Jeannette Whitehill Chair in Bioethics, University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
Constance Holden, RN, MSN. Member, Ethics Consultation Team, Boulder Community Health, Board Member of Colorado Healthcare Ethics Forum.
Charles F Miller, MD, FACP, FASCO, Medical Oncologist-Hematologist, Internist, Geriatrician. Member, Hawaii Doctors For Dignity. Member, Board of Directors, Hawaii Society of Clinical Oncology. Hawaii State Representative to the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Director, Kaiser Hawaii Aid in Dying Program.
Deborah North, MD. Practice in Internal Medicine, Hospice and Palliative Care. Former chair of ethics committee at Skagit Valley Hospital. Panelist at state legislative sessions advocating for Medical Aid in Dying. Attending and consulting physician with End of Life Washington State, 2009 to present.
Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, HEC-C, is a foremost expert on medical law and clinical ethics. He focuses on patient rights and healthcare decision making, especially at the end of life. A fellow of the Hastings Center and previously both a Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Health Law, Policy, and Ethics at the University of Ottawa, and a visiting scholar at the Brocher Foundation in Switzerland; Pope is now a Professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota. While Professor Pope serves in a range of consulting capacities, he has been particularly influential through extensive high-impact scholarship. Ranked among the Top 20 most cited health law scholars in the United States and the Top 50 in the world, Pope has nearly 300 law, medicine, and bioethics publications. Prior to joining academia, Professor Pope practiced at Arnold & Porter and clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Pope earned a JD and PhD from Georgetown University.
Katalin Eve Roth, JD, MD, FACP. Internal Medicine, Geriatrics, Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Faculty, George Washington School of Medicine & Health Sciences, teaching ethics. Member, George Washington University Hospital Ethics Committee. Medical Aid in Dying Provider, Washington DC.
Yvette Vieira, MMH, HEC-C. Senior Manager, Palliative Care and Bioethics, Atlantic Health System, New Jersey. Chair of System Healthcare Ethics Oversight Committee, Director of Medical Aid in Dying Program, Non-voting Member, Medical Society of New Jersey Bioethics Committee. Board Member of New Jersey Death with Dignity and Goals of Care Coalition of New Jersey. Adjunct Professor Medical and Health Humanities Program, Drew University.