fbpx

Six Months to Live – The Ethical Challenge for Doctors

[additional-authors]
September 28, 2016

“You have six months to live.” These can be frightening words to any patient who hears them.

But they are also words with legal, ethical, and emotional implications for the doctor who may be asked to put them in writing. Here are two situations where a doctor may be asked to issue a statement that a patient is expected to die within six months:

* To make the patient eligible for hospice services (in many locations)

* To allow the patient to obtain a life-ending medication under California’s new End of Life Option Act (the EOLOA) and under similar legislation in other states.

(The EOLOA took effect in June 2016. The “six-month certification” is one of several requirements for its use. An article about the EOLOA appeared in this blog in September 2015, while the legislation was pending; see The hospice requirement and the EOLOA requirement sound like they are the same thing, but before reading on, imagine that you are a doctor, asked to issue such a certification for one of your patients. How might your approach be different in the two cases? What ethical distinctions do you see?

I recently attended a talk by Dr. Lonny Shavelson, founder of Bay Area End of Life Options (Toward the end of his talk, he described the differences in his own approach when asked, as a doctor, to provide the two types of certification described earlier.

He first noted that such diagnoses are always a matter of uncertainty. A patient who appears to have less than a six-month life expectancy may end up living much longer (or may die much sooner than in six months). He then posed the question of what the implications are of making a diagnostic error in each case, and gave this analysis:

* The hospice certification: If a doctor writes a letter for hospice services, stating that patient X is expected to die with six months, what are the implications if the patient lives longer (i.e., if the doctor makes an error in judgment)? Dr. Shavelson’s perspective is that there is little down side. The main consequence of such an error is that the patient gets valuable services for which he or she perhaps should have been ineligible. Dr. Shavelson said that he tends to be generous in making such a certification, because no (or little) harm is done by a mistake.

* The EOLOA certification: On the other hand, for the EOLOA situation, if the doctor is wrong, the end result may turn out to be a significant shortening of the patient’s life. Given a six-month certification, patient may choose to request, and use, the life-ending medication available under the EOLOA, believing that the end is near anyway. The same patient, believing that he or she has a longer life span, might look differently at the issue of using life-ending medication. Because of these different implications, Dr. Shavelson said that he tends to be far more cautious in making an EOLOA certification.

So what do you think? If you were a doctor (or a patient) would you approach these two declarations differently? How and why?

Dan Fendel has been a Spiritual Care Volunteer at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland since 2014, and previously did volunteer grief support work for more than two decades with the Shanti Project and Namaste in the Berkeley/Oakland area. He is co-founder of the Chevrah Kadisha at Temple Sinai in Oakland, CA, as well as co-author, with Rabbi Stuart Kelman, of both the Expanded Third Edition of Chesed Shel Emet: The Truest Act of Kindness: Exploring the Meaning of Taharah, and Nichum Aveilim: A Guide for the Comforter. He was lead organizer of the East Bay Chevrah Kadisha Consortium, which promotes cooperation and sharing of resources among the dozen or so Chevrah Kadisha groups in the greater Oakland/Berkeley area.

 

GAMLIEL INSTITUTE COURSES

Please Tell Anyone Who May Be Interested!

            Winter 2016:

REGISTRATION IS NOW OPEN:

Gamliel Institute Course 1, Chevrah Kadisha History, Origins, & Evolution (HOE) will be offered over twelve weeks on Tuesday evenings from December 5th, 2016 to February 21st, 2017, online.  

Not quite sure if this is for you? Try a free ‘taste’ by coming to an introductory session on Monday, November 14th, 2016 from 8 to 9:30 pm EST. The instructors will talk about what the course includes, give a sense of how it runs, and talk about some of the topics that will be covered in depth in the full course.

For those who register, there will be an orientation session on Monday December 4th. It is intended for those unfamiliar with the online course platform used, all who have not taken a Gamliel Institute course recently, and those who have not used an online webinar/class presentation tool in past.

Class times will be all be 5-6:30 pm PST/6-7:30 pm MST/7-8:30 CST/8-9:30 pm EST. If you are in any other time zone, please determine the appropriate time, given local time and any Daylight Savings Time adjustments necessary.

Please note: the class meetings will be online, and will take place on Tuesdays (unless a Jewish holiday requires a change of date for a class session).  

The focus of this course is on the development of the modern Chevrah Kadisha, the origins of current practices, and how the practices and organizations have changed to reflect the surrounding culture, conditions, and expectations. The course takes us through the various text sources to seek the original basis of the Chevrah Kadisha, to Prague in the 1600’s, through the importation of the Chevrah Kadisha to America, and all the way to recent days. It is impossible to really understand how we came to the current point without a sense of the history.

SIGN UP NOW TO TAKE THIS COURSE!

There is no prerequisite for this course; you are welcome to take it with no prior knowledge or experience, though interest in the topic is important. Please register, note it on your calendar, and plan to attend the online sessions.

Note that there are registration discounts available for three or more persons from the same organization, and for clergy and students. There are also some scholarship funds available on a ‘need’ basis. Contact us (information below) with any questions.

You can “>jewish-funerals.org/gamreg. A full description of all of the courses is there as well. For more information, visit the “>Kavod v’Nichum website or on the

Please contact us for information or assistance. info@jewish-funerals.org or j.blair@jewish-funerals.org, or call 410-733-3700, or 925-272-8563.

 

        LOOKING FORWARD:

Gamliel Institute will be offering course 4, Nechama, in the Spring (starting March 6th, 2017). Look for information to be forthcoming, or visit the “>Kavod v'Nichum Gamliel Institute Registration site.  

  

 

DONATIONS:

Donations are always needed and most welcome. Donations support the work of Kavod v’Nichum and the Gamliel Institute, helping us provide scholarships to students, refurbish and update course materials, support programs such as Taste of Gamliel, provide and add to online resources, encourage and support communities in establishing, training, and improving their Chevrah Kadisha, and assist with many other programs and activities.

You can donate online at You can also become a member (Individual or Group) of Kavod v’Nichum to help support our work. Click  

MORE INFORMATION

If you would like to receive the Kavod v’Nichum newsletter by email, or be added to the Kavod v’Nichum Chevrah Kadisha & Jewish Cemetery email discussion list, please be in touch and let us know at info@jewish-funerals.org.

You can also be sent an email link to the Expired And Inspired blog each week by sending a message requesting to be added to the distribution list to j.blair@jewish-funerals.org.

Be sure to check out the Kavod V’Nichum website at “>Gamliel.Institute website.

 

RECEIVE NOTICES WHEN THIS BLOG IS UPDATED!

Sign up on our Facebook Group page: just search for and LIKE “>@chevra_kadisha.

To find a list of other blogs and resources we think you, our reader, may find to be of interest, click on “About” on the right side of the page.There is a link at the end of that section to read more about us.

Past blog entries can be searched online at the L.A. Jewish Journal. Point your browser to  

SUBMISSIONS WELCOME

If you have an idea for an entry you would like to submit to this blog, please be in touch. Email J.blair@jewish-funerals.org. We are always interested in original materials that would be of interest to our readers, relating to the broad topics surrounding the continuum of Jewish preparation, planning, rituals, rites, customs, practices, activities, and celebrations approaching the end of life, at the time of death, during the funeral, in the grief and mourning process, and in comforting those dying and those mourning, as well as the actions and work of those who address those needs, including those serving as Bikkur Cholim, Caring Committees, the Chevrah Kadisha, Shomrim, funeral providers, funeral homes and mortuaries, and operators and maintainers of cemeteries.

 

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.