Word: patient
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...discuss it in the spirit of the Shanghai Communique, which provides that the purpose of our contacts is to achieve full normalization. We don'tr have a timetable right now. [As for the Chinese) well, they've stated publicly that they're patient...
...Harvard University: no spontaneous respiration, no reflexive response to external stimuli or to pain, no brain activity showing on an EEG checked first by one observer then again by another 24 hours later. If these criteria hold, most doctors then assume that even if machines are keeping the patient alive, his brain is dead-and so is he. "Brain death" is currently the legal measure of death in eight states -but not in New Jersey, where the only rule for establishing death is absence of breathing and heart beat...
...outright cases of euthanasia-"when someone is suffering from a terminal disease and you inject a drug to terminate life," as Dr. Winter puts it -the law demands a verdict of intentional homicide. But on the question of a doctor shutting off a life-supporting machine and permitting a patient to die, the law is largely silent. This is considered a mere "act of omission," and whether it constitutes homicide is a matter that has yet to be settled in court...
...Witnesses did not have the right to refuse a blood transfusion on religious grounds. The court then said: "There is no constitutional right to choose to die." Moreover, Hyland and Baime insist that because the state's interest in preserving life outweighs the expressed desire of a patient to die, "it can hardly be argued that a guardian may choose to terminate the life of his ward...
Still, when psychiatric judgment is required, experts try to supply what the court needs to know. Generally they form their opinions by simply talking with the defendant. "What you would see," explains Dr. James Richmond, who has examined Squeaky Fromme, "is a doctor having a conversation with a patient." If the concern is whether the defendant is mentally able to stand trial and defend himself, the psychiatrist concentrates on such matters as the defendant's comprehension of the charges, his ability to follow what his attorney says, and his reaction to authority figures (some defendants go blank when faced...