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San Francisco Chronicle
Thursday, June 14, 2001

Doctor found reckless for not relieving pain
$1.5 million jury verdict for family of cancer patient who went home to Hayward to die

Matthew Yi, Chronicle Staff Writer

In a trial that became a forum for the debate over how pain is treated in American medicine, an Alameda County jury yesterday found that an internist committed elder abuse and reckless negligence by not giving enough pain medication to a Hayward man dying of cancer.

A California lawsuit may give you additional reason to make sure that your patients are adequately treated for pain.

In the first case to assert that failure to treat pain adequately is a form of elder abuse, an Alameda County, Calif., court ruling allows the case to proceed to trial.

A jury has awarded $1.5 million to the family of a man who accused his doctor of not prescribing enough pain medication during a battle with lung cancer.

Oregon Lawmakers Seek to Save State’s Death with Dignity Act

Gannett News Service (June 14, 2001)

MIKE MADDEN WASHINGTON — Oregon members of Congress launched a pre-emptive strike Wednesday against efforts to undo the state’s unique assisted suicide law, introducing legislation to encourage aggressive treatment of pain without interfering with the Oregon Death With Dignity Act.

Eight years after a horrific car accident, Robert Wendland spends his days in a Lodi hospital, unable to speak or walk, a shadow of his former self.

California high court to ponder rights on medical decisions
Physician groups fear legal intrusion into determinations best made by patients and their closest family members.

American Medical News, July 31, 2000
By Vida Foubister, AMNews staff.

California Supreme Court justices unanimously decided last month to review a long-standing case that weighs incompetent patients’ right to refuse medical treatment with their constitutional right to life.

Transcript from CNN’s Talkback Live

(May 30, 2001)

ENDING LIFE SUPPORT: WHO DECIDES?
Bobbie Battista, Sanjay Gupta

Court cases under way in Florida and California could help
clarify who can end the life of people in comas or vegetative
states. The cases of Terri Schiavo and Robert Wendland
demonstrate the difficulty of the decision to pull the plug,
especially when family members disagree.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hand it to me, Robert.
(END VIDEO CLIP)

While AMA delegates and rank-and-file physicians differ on whether assisted suicide should be legal, a sizable group would like government to stay out of it.

The right of terminally ill people to request passive euthanasia took a further step toward legalization yesterday, when the Knesset Law Committee approved a revised version of legislation on the matter for a first reading.

ANOTHER attempt to make voluntary euthanasia legal in SA will be put to both Houses of Parliament this week.

The Supreme Court handed medical marijuana users a major defeat today, ruling that a federal law classifying the drug as illegal has no exception for ill patients.