by NexDev | January 7, 2016 | End of life, Palliative care
Following the creation of a National Center for Palliative Care and the End of Life by the January 5, 2016 decree, the press has announced that Dr. Véronique Fournier, whose ambiguous position on euthanasia is worrisome, has been named president of this organization.
Planned as the first measure in the 2015-2018 national plan for palliative care, this center merges two existing organizations: the Center of National Resources for Palliative Care and the National Observatory for the end of life created in 2008. The objective of the new Center: “accompany users as well as professionals in widening their knowledge of such complex subjects as palliative care and accompaniment of the end of life.”
Whereas in yesterdays’ press release the Health Minister announced that the nomination of the president for the center and a call for applications to constitute the strategic planning council would soon occur, the press revealed the name of Véronique Fournier, a cardiologist and director of the Ethics Center Clinic at Cochin Hospital in Paris.
For several years this doctor has maintained confusion between palliative care and euthanasia, for example by declaring, “In France, palliative care is opposed to euthanasia, whereas, euthanasia must become the ultimate palliative care”, or also by suggesting “a palliative euthanasia” or a euthanasia palliative solution.
Alliance VITA reacted to the announcement of this plan, which came very late in December 2015, whereas the development of palliative care had been frozen since 2012. Alliance VITA supports the position of the pool of associations Relieve suffering without killing, of which it is a member, to be vigilant on two levels: on the one hand regarding the proper application of the end of life law, which contains risks of developing euthanasia practices, and on the other hand, concerning the practical and adequate application of the plan proposed by the government. Alliance VITA shares the deep concerns of Relieve suffering without killing at the announcement of this nomination, which confirms the necessity of absolute vigilance.
Extract from the January 7, 2016 press release made by Relieve suffering without killing with Alliance VITA’s general delegate Tugdual Derville’s response.
For Tugdual Derville, one of the national spokesmen for Relieve suffering without killing, « the confusion between palliative care and euthanasia is the worst thing that could happen in this debate. And it’s the primary reason of our warning against the Claeys-Leonetti law where the concept of “profound and continuous sedation until death” are equivalent, in some cases, to a masked euthanasia or an assisted suicide. Some people are undermining the good job made by palliative care in order to divert palliative care givers from their mission: at the same time they pretend to be supporting them, while pretending at the same time that it is not a reasonable solution.
And, unfortunately we cannot help but note that Véronique Fournier has largely contributed to this confusion, by recommending what she calls “palliative euthanasia”. She also opens new high-risk debates, as when she implies that one should reopen the question of respecting life for elderly demented people in institutions. But, “dying poorly” situations still call for more solidarity, without ever allowing to legitimately cross the border of “forbid killing”, which constitutes the structure of a social pact specifically needed by those who are most vulnerable and those without voice”.
At the approach of the last parliamentary debates to finalize the law on the end of life, in the coming weeks, Relieve suffering without killing calls all the PMs to greater vigilance, so that this new law will not legitimate in France a euthanasia which does not tell its true name.
by NexDev | January 5, 2016 | End of life, News, Palliative care
How to take better care of individuals at the end of life? A new study has been conducted to determine whether health policies could improve care at the end of life: the results show that some hospitalizations could be avoided thanks to the general practitioner and via a better care coordination.
The study, which was published in the JECH (Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health), was carried out in 4 European countries (The Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, and Italy) between 2009 and 2011 by the Sentinel Networks of General Practitioners. Only non-sudden deaths were taken into account, that is 4791 cases were studied. These doctors noted the circumstances of the death of their patients and the frequency of hospitalization during the last three months of their life.
In all the countries studied, there was a similar percentage of hospitalization in the last 3 months (approximately half of the non-sudden deaths).
However, the percentage of repeated hospitalizations (two or three successive episodes) is less than half in The Netherlands than in the other countries. The preventative action of the General Practitioners against repeated hospitalization is one of the keys, even if it doesn’t seem to be the determining factor. It appears that in The Netherlands, this role is combined with a better coordination of care beginning at the first hospitalization.
In addition, the study emphasizes that there is a lower percentage of hospitalization in the last seven days of life in The Netherlands. The study shows that the general practitioners’ knowledge of the patient’s final wishes regarding the place of his death, as well as the fact of residing in a retirement home offering medical care, are determining factors to avoid being hospitalized at the very end of life.
The study concludes that hospitalizations can be avoided if care is better organized and if individuals at the end of life receive care in their usual environment. Thus, by implementing a more-adapted public health policy, hospitalizations at the end of life could be reduced. These hospitalizations are sometimes carried out against the wishes of some patients and their families, and reducing these episodes could contribute significantly to lowering the cost of care.
by NexDev | December 21, 2015 | Uncategorized
On December 16, 2015, the INSEE rendered public several studies which analyzed 2011 data on the evolution of couples and families in France and in Europe.
In France, among the 47.8 million individuals of majority age, 66.4% form couples. Living as a married couple remains the most wide-spread conjugal relation (73% out of 31.7 million couples) whereas 23% are in common-law unions and 4% are PACSed couples (civil partnerships).
Furthermore, among the 7.8 million families counting 13.7 million minor children, the model of children who live with both parents remains largely dominant: these so-called “traditional” families, composed of an adult couple living under the same roof with one or more children born from their union, represent 70% of families (therefore more than one family out of two where the parents are married).
Recomposed families remain relatively stable, passing from 8.7% in 1999 to 9.3% in 2011. The situation of “single-parent” families has however increased, passing from 16% to 20% during the same period. The main cause is not widowhood, as in the past, but the break-up of relationships (for 75% of them). In these cases, the children’s primary residence is with the mother, even if alternative custody has increased.
The study specifies « Each year, the number of separations for couples living together is higher. In the years from 1993-1996, an average of 155,000 couples separated every year, with at least one partner being aged between 25 to 45 years old at the moment of the break-up, and for half of them (75,000) under-age children were involved. Fifteen years later, in the years 2009-2012, the number of separations is 253,000 per year, of which 115,000 affect minors. The number of minor children implicated in these separations has increased, passing from 145,000 to 191,000 between the two periods studied. Following the separation of their parents, 75% live with their mother, 17% with shared custody, and 8% live with their father.”
Forty percent of so-called “single parent” families are under the poverty line. “The separation leads to a reduced standard of living of 3% on average for men and 20% for women.”
Compared to the rest of Europe, in France « large families (three or more children) are more widespread (19% of families with at least one child less than 25 years old, compared to an average 15% in Europe), analogous to all the Northern and North-Western countries except Germany. The rate is especially high in Ireland (29%)”.
A survey cited in the study on single parent families in Europe regarding the opinion about the families in different European countries show that more than 80% of the French think “a child needs a father and a mother to be happy”.
Namely: 4 misconceptions of French families, Le Monde December 16, 2015
by NexDev | December 21, 2015 | Uncategorized
The e-health or telehealth services cover different instruments which rely on information and communication technology to facilitate and improve prevention, diagnosis, treatment and medical follow-up as well as health management and lifestyle. The m-health covers a range of services from well-being to health and whose use is made continually accessible via mobile devices, smartphones and tablets. The e-patients are the consumers and patients of e-health or m-health.
Officially founded last September 28, 59 French e-health start-ups have recently announced that they will join together in an association: France eHealthTech. This consolidation aims to develop the sector, by sharing networks and experience in order to have an effect on the highest levels and to help give rise to French leaders in a sector that is rapidly evolving thanks to technical progress and digital technology. The “online body” and the digitalization of the relation between the patient and the care-giver are only at their early stages.
France’s eHealthTech’s “objective is to federate the e-health and well-being sector in France: web platforms, social health networks, mobile devices, digital conversational interfaces. Then to federate intermediate size business, larger groups, research and competitive poles, clusters, financial players, professional health representatives, patients and users who intervene in e-health within an ecosystem which allows the creation of an international industrial sector.”
France eHealthTech assumes its’ role as a « lobby ». The association has notably been consulted in the framework of the Health law or the future Macron II Law, and campaigns for opening up public health data to foster data saving and the emergence of new services. It undertakes on “a two-fold goal: to encourage and allow the growth of French e-health and to make the e-health of today, the health of tomorrow.”
by NexDev | December 18, 2015 | Bioethics, Medically Assisted Procreation
Due to its « attractive prices », 35,000 to 50,000 Euros compared to 130,000 in the United States, Mexico is considered as an « Eldorado » for Gestational Surrogacy practice.
But after India and Thailand, Mexico will equally be restricting this practice, which largely exploits the poverty of women, legalizes programmed abandonment of children and constitutes real trafficking of human beings.
This country could start limitations by closing the door to foreign purchasers and to homosexual men. The state of Tabasco, the only Mexican state which tolerates this practice, voted on the possibility of restricting this access to Mexican couples only, for women younger than 40 years of age, who can furnish medical evidence of physiological incapacity to bear children.
In France although this practice is forbidden, the French have recourse to this abroad, and especially in Mexico. Recently the press reported the case of two men having difficulty to return to France with two new-born twins, because the French Consulate based in Mexico refused to deliver a “travel pass” for the two babies, born from a surrogate mother.
Alliance VITA is a partner of the No Maternity Traffic association which has launched a call for universal abolishment of Gestational Surrogacy, a contemptible practice of marketing women’s bodies and of merchandising unborn children.
Sign the online petition for the abolishment of Gestational Surrogacy
