Dear friends and readers,

I post to offer a brief explanation and apology for the last month and a half of skimpy offerings on this blog. My father had a stroke in February from which he largely recovered, though his underlying Parkinson’s had clearly begun to affect both motor control and cognition. He has been on life support since August when, due to decreased swallowing ability after years of Parkinson’s, he aspirated milk and cookies and developed aspiration pneumonia. He never fully regained consciousness, and had several more strokes which were only detected by imaging. After all, the signs we normally notice for a stroke–speech, loss of motor control on one side, facial expressions changed on one side, etc.–were no longer available for observation. On labor day weekend, we removed him from the ventilator. To everyone’s surprise, he was able to breathe on his own.  In a moral move all bioethicists will recognize, his proxy decision-maker saw removal of his feeding tube not as letting-die, but as killing. I understood this. I understand this. Though I disagreed. Instead of our plan to transfer him to hospice, which I had objectively explained to my father’s proxy, he was transferred to long-term care. For whom, by that point, were we making decisions? For my father, the patient, yes. But also now for those who remain, and who must live with their decisions, who must make decisions that are livable.

Wednesday morning, he passed away after a series of increasingly bad outcomes. His proxy said that by the end, it was an unambiguous blessing.  For myself, I hope I go sometime after so-much-left-to-live-for and sometime before death-is-an-unambiguous-blessing.

As you can imagine, this has been occupying my time and my thoughts, especially as he lived and was hospitalized across the state from me. I have gone from facing his death, to facing his life, to again facing his death, from grief to half-grief and grief yet again.
India has developed infertility centers for evaluation, cialis without prescription diagnose, and treatments. The reason as to why the reported cases are so low is because many men feel ashamed by the fact that they cannot perform well sexually, which constitute a great inhibition when it comes to revealing the order cialis from canada disorder to physicians and doctors. This is hardly a problem that affects approximately 1 in 5 men and even more women at some point in their life. generic in uk viagra The pills are very much helpful to make the man think positive while he is going to have physical session with her partner. buy generic viagra visit for info
I hope now to restore regular service to the blog.  I may occasionally reflect on this experience through a bioethics lens, as myself (Alison Reiheld) rather than as editor.  However, for this explanation and apology and notice of restoration to normal function, I wear my Editor hat.

Thank you for bearing with the blog, and for picking up readership again.

IJFAB Blog Editor, Alison Reiheld