RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Old Books, Warm Cookies, and Death With Dignity
JF The Annals of Family Medicine
JO Ann Fam Med
FD American Academy of Family Physicians
SP 370
OP 371
DO 10.1370/afm.3003
VO 21
IS 4
A1 Ardman, Eric
YR 2023
UL http://www.annfammed.org/content/21/4/370.abstract
AB Family medicine physicians take care of patients and their families “from womb to tomb.” This phrase is particularly apt in Oregon, where the Death with Dignity Act allows for terminally ill patients to end their lives with self-administered medications prescribed by a physician. This story chronicles my first experience caring for a patient under the Death with Dignity Act; that night of her death at home, surrounded by the warmth of her life and loved ones, opened my mind to the possibilities of what the patient-physician relationship entails, from the routine of meeting her family to the intimacy of assisting in her decision to die.