Hospice Ethics: Policy and Practice in Palliative Care

This volume identifies and explores ethical themes in the structure and delivery of hospice care in the United States. As the fastest growing sector in the US health care system, in which over 40% of patients who die each year receive care in their final weeks of life, hospice care presents complex ethical opportunities and challenges for patients, families, clinicians, and administrators. Thirteen original chapters, written by 17 hospice experts, offer guidance and analysis that promotes best ethical practice for hospice organisations and professionals

From rites to rights of passage : ideals, politics, and the evolution of the American hospice movement / Joy Buck -- Hospice care as a moral practice : exploring the philosophy and ethics of hospice care / Timothy W. Kirk -- The pharmacist as an integral member of the hospice interdisciplinary team / R. Timothy Tobin -- The continuingly evolving role of the hospice medical director / Joan Harrold -- The interdisciplinary team integrating moral reflection and deliberation / Terry Altilio and Nessa Coyle -- Ethical issues in the care of infants, children, and adolescents / Marcia Levetown and Stacy Orloff -- The patient-family dyad as interdependent unit of hospice care : toward an ethical justification / Patrick T. Smith -- Inpatient hospice care : organizational and ethical considerations / Tara Friedman -- Ethical issues associated with hospice in nursing homes and assisted living communities / Jean C. Munn and Sheryl Zimmerman -- Cardiopulmonary resuscitation in hospice : ethically justified or an oxymoron? / Muriel R. Gillick -- Moral meanings of physician-assisted death for hospice ethics / Courtney S. Campbell -- Ethics committees for hospice : moving beyond the acute care model / Jennifer Ballentine and Pamela Dalinis -- Design for dying : new directions for hospice and end-of-life care / Bruce Jennings.