Preface.

• Author: Bopp, Jr., James

The lead article in this edition of Issues in Law & Medicine provides a critical examination of the hypothesis that the quality of end-of-life (EOL) medical care provided in nursing homes is often skewed in a perverse way because providers are driven unduly by legal apprehensions about potential negative entanglements and repercussions associated with EOL care to their residents. Marshall B. Kapp, J.D., M.P.H., FCLM, professor of geriatric medicine and gerontology at Wright State University, offers practice and policy recommendations for trying to resolve or mitigate the tension present between legally defensive practice (real or perceived) by nursing homes, on one hand, and ethically optimal EOL care, on the other.

The Verbatim section includes four items of interest. In view of the continuing controversy regarding the withdrawal of tube feeding and hydration from Terri Shiavo in Florida, the editors include here the brief amicus curiae of Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the brief amici curiae of disability rights organizations supporting tube feeding and hydration, and the resulting Florida Court of Appeals opinion affirming the trial court's denial of a motion for relief from the final order permitting withdrawal of tube feeding and hydration. The fourth Verbatim is the testimony of Angela Lanfranchi, M.D., specialist in breast diseases, surgeon, professor of surgery at the Robert Wood Johnson University Medical School, and co-director of the Breast Center at Somerset Medical Center, before the Massachusetts Joint Health Care Committee on June 11, 2003, emphasizing women's right to know about the abortion-breast cancer connection when considering their risk of breast cancer.

The Nota Bene section includes three state supreme court decisions in 2003...