“While we human beings are of inestimable value, we are not of infinite value,” writes an ethicist and professor of medicine in a new book on end-of-life care. More →

March 12, 2010

“More is not better,” according South Florida hospital CEO Brian Keely. “We know that more health care services can result in lower levels of care.” Health care costs are double the national average in Miami, where Keely says specialists use more medical resources and technology. More →

November 24, 2009

“How do we save our community?” asks Bishop Rainey Cheeks of Inner Light Ministries in Washington, DC. “We can have all the other theological debates later on, but right now we are in trouble.” More →

November 20, 2009

Read an excerpt from a new book on medical technology costs and our health care system by Daniel Callahan, who advocates “an open discussion on what counts as good or bad choices, wise or imprudent ones, and our social obligations to our community as we make them.” More →

November 6, 2009

“I want to just go peacefully. The only medications I want are going to be the ones that would comfort me. That’s all I want,” says Jill Steuer, a nurse with advanced-stage breast cancer who has decided to stop any kind of treatment and receive hospice care. More →

October 9, 2009

  BOB ABERNETHY (Anchor): As the president and Congress wrestle with health care reform, their debate has centered on how to provide health insurance for everyone and how to pay for that. But the president and many others also say … More →

July 24, 2009

FRED DE SAM LAZARO: Aravind is the world’s largest eye care center, a one-stop shop that even makes many of the lenses and instruments used by its surgeons. It looks like any of India’s high tech centers where rich Indians … More →

July 2, 2009

Alzheimer’s disease gets progressively worse and there is no known cure. After a certain point, should an Alzheimer’s patient be kept alive with a feeding tube? Many family members say, of course: they should do everything possible to prolong a loved one’s life. But some doctors say inserting a feeding tube is inhumane, because it can just prolong a vegetative state for years. More →

January 23, 2009

“Do you want to reconstitute immune systems or do you want to reconstitute lives?” asks Dr. Joseph Mamlin, who runs a clinic in Kenya that now serves over 60,000 patients. “We’ve decided to go after lives.” More →

December 5, 2008

Camp Ray of Hope is like no other. People grieving the death of a spouse, a child, or a friend, attend in order to learn how to accept that death and go on. It is filled with laughter, beauty, and pain. More →

October 17, 2008