ADVANCE DIRECTIVES FOR HEALTHCARE
The Life-Affirming Medical Proxy (LAMP) was developed by HALO in response to calls from people seeking HALO’s help to obtain a medical power of attorney (a.k.a. a durable power of attorney for health care) in emergency situations. The LAMP document can be readily downloaded in such situations. The American Bar Association advises, “Even if your state requires a specific form, doctors have a legal obligation to respect your clearly communicated treatment wishes in any manner or form expressed, as long as the wishes are medically appropriate.” (Sabatino, Charles. “Myths and Facts About Health Care Advance Directives.” BIFOCAL, vol. 37, no. 1, 2015, pp. 6–9.) Accordingly, regardless of where you reside, a signed and properly witnessed LAMP document should be accepted as a valid expression of your wishes.
Important Articles Regarding
Advance Directives for Healthcare
LIFE-AFFIRMING ADVANCE
DIRECTIVES FOR HEALTHCARE
By Julie Grimstad
June 2020
HALO collaborates with many organizations to provide those who trust us with the best life-affirming information, services, and products available.
Read more…
WHY AND HOW TO REFUSE TO BE AN ORGAN DONOR
The Uniform Anatomical Gift Act was revised in 2006 and most states have adopted it. Everyone who has not explicitly refused to be an organ donor is now considered a “prospective donor.”
Read more…
ADVANCE DIRECTIVES FOR HEALTHCARE — PART ONE: THE BEST ADVANCE DIRECTIVE IS A MEDICAL POWER OF ATTORNEY
By Julie Grimstad
June 2020
Advance directives are legal documents by which individuals express their wishes regarding medical treatment in the event they become incapable of making health care decisions for themselves. Part One of this two-part article addresses two types of advance directives: the Medical Power of Attorney and the Living Will.
Read more…
ADVANCE DIRECTIVES FOR HEALTHCARE, PART TWO: THE DANGEROUS POLST FORM
By Julie Grimstad
June 2020
Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) is an advance directive form used extensively throughout the United States.
Read more…
DEBORAH, HER MOM, AND DOING THE RIGHT THING
By Judie Brown
June 2020
My mom has stage 4 cancer, so I took one of the American Life League Loving Wills I got several years ago and read her the form about food and water and asked if she wanted to sign one so they will have to give her nutrition. She said she wanted to. My daughter is a notary, and she came to the hospital and read over the form. She said it wasn’t sufficient because it didn’t go into detail about DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) order. She notarized it anyway, but I need your input to make sure this is all we need.
Read more…
A WARNING TO CHOOSE YOUR HEALTHCARE AGENT CAREFULLY
By Kellie Fourten
June 2020
Advance directives are legal documents by which individuals express their wishes regarding medical treatment in the event they become incapable of making health care decisions for themselves. Part One of this two-part article addresses two types of advance directives: the Medical Power of Attorney and the Living Will.
Read more…
Important Articles
Regarding Conscience Rights
Consciences Not Allowed
For healthcare workers who respect the sanctity of human life, participating in certain procedures, such as abortion or assisted suicide, are unthinkable.
Read more…
Important Articles Regarding COVID-19
PROTECT EMPLOYEES WHO REFUSE VACCINES
LifeSite News supports Indiana’s Senate Bill 74, reporting that this bill prohibits the employer from requiring an employee “to receive any immunization if the immunization is medically contraindicated (inadvisable) for the employee or receiving the immunization is against the employee’s religious beliefs or conscience.” The law also protects “prospective employees” on the same grounds, and “[a]llows for a civil action against an employer for a violation.”
Read more…
THE COVID-19 RESPONSE: A PATHWAY FOR DISCRIMINATION AND THE CULTURE OF DEATH
By Mariah Buzza
December 2020
If the year 2020 has revealed anything, it is that suffering is an inevitable part of life. While Christians believe Christ has redeemed suffering, it is an experience that all will endure. The COVID-19 Pandemic has single handedly reminded us of this reality. From economic depression to the looming fear of the virus, anxiety abounds. However, the key to the Christian life lies in how we respond to suffering. While the virus is indeed a threat to human life, has society at large responded in a way that is counter-productive and creative of even greater suffering? Have we paved a way for the culture of death?
Read more…
Important Articles
Regarding Elder Abuse & Neglect
A Cautionary Tale and Call to Raise Our Voices
By Kathy M.
September 2020
On April 24, 2020, my husband, Jay, went to Fairview Ridges emergency room with persistent stomach pain. I was not allowed to accompany him. Six hours later, a doctor called on a speaker phone. With Jay in the room, the doctor informed me that my husband of 25 years had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer which had spread to his liver and nearby lymph nodes. He also had four blood clots – one in his stomach, two in his lungs, and one in his leg. He was being admitted to the hospital.
Read more…
USE YOUR VOICE
In the Fox News article titled “Janice Dean Finally Testifies on NY Nursing Home Deaths, Demands Full Investigation with Subpoena Power” Dean is speaking out for residents living in assisted living or care facilities – residents who have been placed in danger due to the governor’s decision to combine healthy residents with covid-19 positive patients who have been discharged from hospitals. This is very personal for Dean as in recent weeks both her mother-in-law and father-in-law, who lived in care facilities, passed away from Covid -19.
Read more…
RETHINKING NURSING HOMES: SHOULD I TAKE MY LOVED ONE HOME DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC?
Our June newsletter included the article “Rethinking Nursing Homes.” HALO again brings this thought-provoking piece to your attention, and we have added a bonus – the link to a helpful checklist created by consumervoice.org titled “Should I take my loved one home during the Covid-19 crisis?”
Read more…
Important Articles
Regarding Euthanasia
MEDICAL FUTILITY
Some medical decisions to stop treatment are actually decisions to commit euthanasia by omission. These decisions are often disguised by calling them “medical futility” or “futile care” decisions.
Read more…
IF KILLING IS THE SOLUTION, WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
By Christopher Rogers
January 2021
Supporters of abortion long ago argued that the act they championed was not murder because the developing fetus was not yet a human life or a person. Gradually, when this argument became harder to defend, mainly because of ultrasounds, the tactic used to champion abortion morphed into cries of “my body, my choice.”
Read more…
MOM WAKES FROM COMA!
January 2021
The article Mom wakes from coma the day before she was supposed to be removed from ventilator recounts the true story of Lisa Martin. Lisa, a mother of four, was admitted to the hospital in September of 2020 for COVID-related complications.
Read more…
MY BROTHER WAS EUTHANIZED
By Kathleen Friedman
December 2020
From the evening my brother was taken to the hospital by ambulance on June 24, 2020, the doctors were pushing hospice on us. My husband, a board-certified Gastroenterologist and Internist from New York, responded to the doctor on call that Joe at least deserved a chance to get to his first chemotherapy treatment. Joe had stage 4 esophageal cancer.
Read more…
EUTHANASIA FOR CHILDREN
November 2020
The legalization of euthanasia is incredibly evil. It transforms healers into killers. The expansion of euthanasia laws to permit killing sick children by lethal injection is yet another symptom of the culture of death’s profound influence on law and medicine throughout the world.
Read more…
DENIAL OF TREATMENT BECOMES EUTHANASIA
By Jane, California
Read more…
EUTHANASIA IN 2020
August 2020
Recent world headlines, including the following ones from APnews.com, show us that the practice of euthanasia, once thought to be rare, is becoming more and more accepted around the world.
Read more…
VENTILATOR—
COVID-19 TO USE
OR NOT TO USE
By Paul A. Byrne, M.D.
May 11, 2020
Ventilators are in the public eye with the COVID-19 pandemic. Basic information about breathing is needed to understand what the ventilator can and cannot do to protect and preserve life.
Read more…
A EUTHANASIA “PARTY”
By Julie Grimstad
Read more…
MY PATIENT WISHED TO LIVE, BUT …
By Ioana Caranica
Read more…
COMBATTING THE EPIDEMIC OF MEDICAL KILLING
By Ron Panzer
The following is a condensed version of an article by Ron Panzer which was in the Hospice Patients Alliance Newsletter, June 25, 2019. The author, Ron Panzer, is president of the Hospice Patients Alliance (hospicepatients.org) and author of the book Stealth Euthanasia.
Read more…
WHAT ABOUT VENTILATORS AND “PULLING THE PLUG”?
By Nancy Valko, RN
Read more…
CULTURE OF LIFE STUDIES PROGRAM
By Mary Flores
Read more…
DEATH IN NEW BRAUNFELS, TEXAS
By Gloria Hartman
My husband, Tony, was 80. He did not have cancer, heart disease, or any terminal illness. He had moderate dementia and was disabled from a stroke suffered on August 2, 2017. After the stroke, he needed a wheelchair to get around. Although he continued to have mini-strokes, Tony did not complain of pain or headaches. He was able to converse, answer questions, smile, and pray his Rosary. He said “I love you” often. We rolled his wheelchair up to the table and he fed himself.
Read more…
HALO News & Events
THE COVID-19 RESPONSE: A PATHWAY FOR DISCRIMINATION AND THE CULTURE OF DEATH
By Mariah Buzza
December 2020
Read more…
LOOKING AHEAD TO 2021 WITH HOPE!
By Anne O’Meara,
Executive Director
February 2021
In last month’s newsletter, we shared that over the past year HALO has touched the lives of many patients, families, and caregivers. Whether by battling medical futility policies, fighting unjust discrimination, praying with or for patients and Helpline callers, HALO truly made a difference. While we are proud of HALO’s accomplishments in 2020, we are even more excited to see what we can do in 2021!
Read more…
from the desk of the EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
By Anne O’Meara,
Executive Director
December 2020
Read more…
Important Articles
Regarding Hospice
WHY I BECAME AN ELDER ADVOCATE
By Marsha Joiner – Talk Show Host, Betrayed by Hospice
February 2021
Many of us blindly trust doctors and nurses. However, believing everything healthcare providers tell us regarding the care of vulnerable patients, especially the elderly, can result in an unimaginable death toll. Marsha Joiner painfully describes what happened to her dear mother.
Read more…
DYING FOR DOLLARS
February 2021
The concept of hospice care started gaining traction in the mid-1970’s, but it wasn’t until 1983 that hospice really started thriving. In 1983, Medicare had announced they would begin covering hospice services. Once this happened, for-profit hospice providers quickly popped up to meet a growing need. The growth of for-profit organizations quickly outpaced the capacity of non-profit organizations who had started the hospice model.
Read more…
HERE’S WHAT I LEARNED WHILE HELPING A FRIEND IN HOSPICE
By Joan
Read more…
PALLIATIVE CARE AND HOSPICE
By Julie Grimstad, Board President
When a healthcare provider recommends palliative care or hospice, patients and their families need guidance so they can make the best life-affirming decisions possible in their circumstances. The Healthcare Advocacy and Leadership Organization (HALO) advises people to do their homework before electing a palliative care or hospice program.
Read more…
A REAL AND PRESENT DANGER: MEDICAL DISCRIMINATION
By M.A., Medical Technician
July 2020
It was a shocking experience. Sue was in her early 70’s. She ate each meal. When she began stumbling in the dining room, the management said, “We need to get hospice to talk to the family.” The hospice staff convinced Sue’s family that she was declining, that it was “her time.”
Read more…
UPDATE ON BABY TINSLEE—HUGE U.S. SUPREME COURT WIN!
January 2021
Read more…
A FAMILY MAY BE THE ONLY “HOSPICE” TEAM NEEDED
By Amy Holtan
My 83-year-old father, Jack, broke his hip on October 7, 2018. Sadly, he passed away on December 12, 2018. This is a brief summary of Dad’s last two months, highlighting the unsettling issues we faced with Hospice.
Read more…
A REAL AND PRESENT DANGER: MEDICAL DISCRIMINATION
By M.A., Medical Technician
July 2020
It was a shocking experience. Sue was in her early 70’s. She ate each meal. When she began stumbling in the dining room, the management said, “We need to get hospice to talk to the family.” The hospice staff convinced Sue’s family that she was declining, that it was “her time.”
Read more…
UPDATE ON BABY TINSLEE—HUGE U.S. SUPREME COURT WIN!
January 2021
Read more…